Iran says Rushdie and supporters to blame for attack

No one has the right to level accusations against Iran over Friday's attack on Salman Rushdie, for which he and his supporters are solely to blame, the foreign ministry in Tehran said on Monday.

The novelist, who has lived under threat for decades since enraging clerical authorities in Iran through his writing, is recovering after being repeatedly stabbed at a public appearance in New York state.

In Iran's first official reaction to Friday's attack, ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said freedom of speech did not justify Rushdie's insults against religion. His 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses" is viewed by some Muslims as containing blasphemous passages.

"During the attack on Salman Rushdie, we do not consider anyone other than himself and his supporters worthy of reproach, reproach and condemnation," Kanaani told a news briefing. "No one has the right to accuse Iran in this regard."

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Writers and politicians around the world have condemned the attack.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that Iranian state institutions had incited violence against Rushdie for generations, and state-affiliated media had gloated about the attempt on his life.

The Indian-born writer has lived with a bounty on his head since "The Satanic Verses" was published in 1988. The following year, Iran's then Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling on Muslims to kill the novelist and anyone involved in the book's publication.

The Iranian government said in 1998 it would no longer back the fatwa.

But in 2019, Twitter suspended Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s account over a tweet that said the fatwa against Rushdie was "solid and irrevocable".