Iran Resolved to Legally Pursue Embassy Attack Case
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Iranian foreign ministry said the country remains resolute in its decision to pursue November attack on its embassy in Beirut through legal and international channels irrespective of reports that main culprit behind the attack has been pronounced dead.
“There will be no disruption to the legal pursuit of the terrorist attack on Iran’s embassy in Beirut,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said, reacting to the reports about death of Majed al-Majed, the Saudi terrorist who masterminded the deadly attack on Iran’s embassy in Beirut weeks ago.
On November 19, twin explosions near the Iranian embassy building in Beirut claimed the lives of more than 2 dozens of people and injured some 150 others. Iranian cultural attaché in Beirut was also among the dead.
Later, an al-Qaeda-linked group, Abdullah Azzam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the bombings.
Last week, the Lebanese army arrested Majed al-Majed, the Saudi commander of Abdullah Azzam Brigades.
However, the Saudi terrorists died on Saturday, January 4, after the deterioration of his health. Majed was suffering from kidney failure and required daily dialysis.
Afkham further asserted that Majed’s death will not by any means undermine Iran’s determination to follow up on the case through legal and international channels.
The Islamic Republic, which has borne the brunt of the bombing attack, still calls for identification and trial of masterminds behind the terrorist plot, she added.
The spokeswoman also renewed call on the Lebanese authorities to make their utmost to bring the entire perpetrators of the attack to justice.
Earlier in the day, Iranian Minister of Justice Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi had expressed willingness to dispatch a delegation comprised of lawyers and legal experts to Lebanon in order to participate in an investigation launched by the Lebanese authorities into the terrorist attack.
In a letter to his Lebanese counterpart Shakib Qortabawi, the Iranian minister voiced Iran’s willingness to send a “team of lawyers and investigation experts” to Lebanon to take a role in the juridical probe into the deadly incident.
Elsewhere in the letter, Pour-Mohammadi wrote that Tehran expects Beirut to prepare the ground for the juridical delegation’s visit to Lebanon.
He further hoped that completion of the inquiry into the incident would bring the perpetrators of the deadly attack to justice as soon as possible.