Iran asks Security Council to condemn attack that killed 95 people

Teerão “condemns these heinous acts of terrorism and will spare no effort to achieve justice for the victims of this incident”, said the document, signed by Iran’s representative to the UN.

In the letter, cited by Iranian news agency Mehr, Amir Saed Iravani called on the United Nations Security Council to “immediately and unequivocally condemn this terrible terrorist attack.”

Iravani also guaranteed Iran’s “steadfastness” in its “unwavering commitment to leading the fight against terrorism”, adding that the country has been “one of the main victims” of the phenomenon.

The letter was also sent to the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres.

The Portuguese condemned on Wednesday, “vehemently”, the double explosion that left 95 dead and more than 210 injured in the province of Kerman, in the south of Iran, close to the tomb of Qassem Soleimani, four years after the death of this general Iranian.

“The secretary-general calls for those responsible to be brought” to justice, the UN leader’s deputy spokeswoman, Florencia Soto Nino, said in a statement.

A previous death toll of 103 was revised downwards after authorities realized that some names had been repeated on a list of victims, Iran’s Health Minister Bahram Einollahi said in statements on state television.

Many of the injured are in critical condition and the death toll could, however, still rise.

The explosions occurred just minutes apart and shook the city of Kerman, about 820 kilometers southeast of the capital, Tehran.

The second explosion sent shrapnel into a crowd that was screaming and running away from the first blast.

The attacks took place near the Saheb al-Zaman mosque, where the tomb of Soleimani, considered a martyr and killed in an attack ordered by former US president Donald Trump, is located.

A compact crowd of representatives of the regime and anonymous people had gathered at the site for a commemorative ceremony, according to the French agency AFP.

On Wednesday, Mohammad Jamshidi, a political adviser to the Iranian president, accused Israel and the US of being behind the two bombings.

No country or organization has so far claimed responsibility for the explosions.

This attack in Iran was the deadliest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran has been the target of attacks, with sabotage and deaths, the responsibility of which has been attributed to Israel. However, among these attacks there have never been explosions aimed at groups of people, like today.

Sunni fundamentalist groups, including the Islamic State, have already carried out large-scale attacks that killed civilians in Shiite-majority Iran.

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