Iran blames blast on ‘Western-backed monarchists’

Iranian authorities have blamed a mosque explosion on Western-backed monarchists opposed to the Islamic Republic, Agence France-Presse reported Thursday.

Interior Minister Mostafa Pour Mohammadi said the blast, which killed 13 and wounded more than 200 in the southern city of Shiraz, “was an act of sabotage and a plot by the enemies of the Iranian people in the name of monarchism.”

“Their headquarters are in countries which claim (to support) human rights, defend their nations and be anti-terrorist,” he added.

Recent years have seen several deadly attacks in border provinces with significant ethnic minority populations, but the strike in Shiraz was the first in decades in Iran’s Persian heartland.

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