RNA – In an interview with Rasa News Agency, Ayatollah Ahmad Beheshti referred to Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris, saying: “These attacks were the result of the fire that the West ignited in several Middle Eastern countries and the smoke of this fire has now blown back into their eyes.”
The representative of the people of Fars province in the Assembly of Experts added that the West promotes and supports Takfiri terrorist groups in order to create turmoil in the Muslim world and in the Middle East and added that the West "created and supports these groups for their own advantage and to strengthen the Zionist regime in the region."
The member of the Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom said that unfortunately, the West has provided all facilities and opportunities for the Takfiri terrorists but added that he was saddened by the news of the deaths of 129 people and the injury of 430 others in the series of coordinated attacks in the French capital.
“The murder of innocent people is completely condemnable in both the Islamic world as well as in the Western world,” he stressed.
Ayatollah Beheshti said that the arrogant Western governments must realize that they have ignited the fire of ISIL and other Takfiri groups due to their own actions in the Middle East and added that the pit that the West had dug for Muslims will now lead to their own collapse.
“The West must stop supporting Takfiri groups in order to eliminate them,” he said.
His Eminence criticized the West’s double standards over the terrorist attacks in Paris and the attack which occurred in Beirut a day earlier. “The indifference of the Western media represents the hypocrisy that exists in the West – when the West itself is attacked, they amplify the issue and this is reflected in the way their media portrays the attacks,” he stressed.
Forty-three people died and dozens were injured in an attack on the predominantly Shi’ite Beirut suburb of Bourj el-Barajneh on Thursday. As with the Paris attacks, ISIL claimed responsibility for these attacks.
Ayatollah Beheshti said when Muslims in the Middle East and other countries are harmed, the Western media ignores the issue although both terrorist incidents are equal and both are the results of the fires that the West has ignited in the Middle East.
“When the West plots against others, they are happy but when their plots harms them, they scream,” the Iranian scholar stated.
The Lebanese may have reason to feel slighted. #PrayforParis was mentioned about 6.6 million times on Twitter, compared to 273,000 mentions of #Beirut and #PrayForBeirut combined. Facebook activated Safety Check after a terrorist attack for the first time after the Paris attacks, with no similar feature activated the day before for Beirut.
His Eminence said it is possible that the West will exploit the terrorist attack on Paris and will attack Muslim countries, including Syria, in response. However, the probability of this hypothesis is weak because they are already involved in terrorism and the West has already attacked Syria without any shame.
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