Iran's president strongly condemns St. Petersburg metro terror attack

Rasa - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has denounced a terrorist bomb attack, which left over a dozen people dead and scores wounded in a train carriage in St. Petersburg, Russia.

News ID: 428653

Date: 04 April 2017 - 21:37

RNA - In a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, Rouhani said, “As mentioned in the recent negotiations with you in Moscow, uprooting all forms of terrorism, regardless of their motivations, requires a collective effort by the international community and cooperation among all countries to counter the ideological origins and supporters of criminal [terrorist] groups.”

The Iranian president paid a visit to Moscow on March 28 and held talks with his Russian counterpart and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Rouhani also expressed the Islamic Republic’s readiness for “any form of cooperation with the Russian government” in the campaign against terrorism.

Rouhani said he “strongly condemns the heinous crime” in St. Petersburg and expressed deep sympathy with his Russian counterpart and the bereaved families of the victims.

The Russian Investigative Committee said the deadly metro explosion in St. Petersburg, which killed 14 and injured almost 50 others on Monday, was caused by a bomb that had been detonated by a man whose body parts were found in one of the train carriages.

"It has been ascertained that an explosive device could have been detonated by a man, fragments of whose body were found in the third carriage of the train," the committee said in a statement on Tuesday.

The committee also revealed the identity of the attacker as Akbarjon Djalilov, adding that Djalilov had also planted a second bomb that was defused by the authorities.

"The investigation identified the man who set off the bomb in the carriage of the Saint Petersburg metro. It was Akbarjon Djalilov," the statement said, noting that Djalilov's "genetic trace" was also found on a bag with the second bomb found at a different station.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi also on Monday condemned the attack and called for the establishment of an international coalition for battling terrorism.

He said, “We believe that the only way to stop these terrible atrocities is to cut them out by the roots; the only way to do this is through serious will of all governments and international organizations.”

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