A spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Monday denied that the country was involved in the attack on Salman Rushdie, in what was Tehran’s first official statement since the violent assault, and blamed the perpetrator on him. -same.
Mr Rushdie was stabbed about 10 times on Friday while speaking at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York. He suffered multiple injuries, including a damaged liver, and is expected to lose an eye.
Iranian spokesman Nasser Kanaani blamed Mr Rushdie for the attack.
According to the Iranian Student News Agency, Mr Kanaani said Mr Rushdie had crossed “red lines” and “exposed himself to the wrath and anger of the people”. He said Tehran had no information on the attacker beyond what had been reported in US media.
“In this case, we do not blame or condemn anyone except Salman Rushdie and his supporters,” Mr Kanaani said.
Police arrested Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old man from New Jersey, during the attack.
Mr Rushdie, an award-winning writer, was the subject of a fatwa issued in 1989 by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Iran’s supreme leader, which ordered Muslims to kill him and put a price on his head in the millions of dollars. He was targeted for his novel “The Satanic Verses”, which sparked anger in many parts of the Islamic world due to its depiction of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.
In 1998, President Mohammad Khatami of Iran, considered relatively liberal, declared that the country no longer supported murder. But the fatwa remains in place.
Mr Rushdie spent years under police protection, but more recently has been traveling freely and largely unsafe.
Mr Rushdie has since been taken off a ventilator and his “road to recovery has begun”, his agent, Andrew Wylie, told The New York Times on Sunday. “It’s going to be a long time; the injuries are serious, but his condition is going in the right direction.
In court on Saturday, prosecutors said the attack was premeditated. Mr. Matar had traveled by bus to the intellectual retreat and purchased a pass that allowed him to attend Mr. Rushdie’s speech on Friday morning, prosecutors say.