What’s known so far about the deadly explosions in Iran | DW News

What’s known so far about the deadly explosions in Iran | DW News

Iran’s supreme leader has vowed to carry out a harsh response after twin explosions in the country south killed over a 100 people there’s been no claim of responsibility yet for the blasts which happened near the grave of former top Commander kasim solmani several people were also reported wounded in a

Stampede that followed the blasts in the Southeastern city of Kerman MERS had gathered for a ceremony to mark four years since salmani was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq the EU has condemned the explosions as an act of Terror and called for the perpetrators

To be brought to Justice and the US has denied having any part and said it had no reason to believe Israel did either it’s too early at least for us to be able to say what might have caused it but I do want to address some of the

Irresponsible claims that I have seen circulate and say that number one the United States was not involved in any way and any suggestion to the contrary is ridiculous and number two we have no reason to believe that Israel was involved in this explosion we can now speak to CRA Martin he says Senor

Lecturer on International politics at the University of Sussex welcome back to DW now no one’s yet claimed responsibility and we have heard some say it wasn’t them so what do you think is the most likely option here well since nobody has actually claimed responsibility one can only

Speculate on actors who might have the motive or benefiting from the explosions in that sense there are number of possibilities um one is um extremist Sunni groups such as Isis who have uh previously um conducted um terrorist attacks in Iran um the second uh possibility uh despite denial from

United States is Israel which even though in the past has not attacked civilian Targets in Iran but given the situation in in the region and also the war in Gaza and tension in Lebanese border and given that Israel has been trying to um convince United States to deal with Iran’s nuclear program for

Many years some at least in the war cabinet in Israel might see a response from Iran as a kind of uh provocation which would drag United States into the conflict and therefore um you know deal did with deal with Iran the other possibility is actually the Islamic Republic or factions within the the

Iranian regime itself um if you look at the Ukrainian airliner which was shut down a few years ago shortly following the assassination ofm suani um we see that at times when the Iranian State feels vulnerable to external U uh attacks especially United States they um they might have a motive to create

Create a situation in which they seem to be the victim of a terrorist attacks and therefore attract International communities um um kind of sympathy or um in in the way that an a a response to such an attack would be justified domestically uh because obviously Iran entering the war against uh Israel

Through Hezbollah or other proxies would bring a lot of Devastation to Iran and therefore the regime has to explain its actions uh in you know to the to the domestic audience to its own social base now Iran very quickly said this was a terrorist attack coming from Iran’s

Enemies why do you think the regime came up with this very very Swift explanation before anything really was known at all well in fact the statements have been a bit contradictory for example uh Iran’s vice president the interior Minister immediately accused Israel uh of uh conducting the attack whereas

Other officials such as a member of Iran’s parliamentary uh committee for SEC National Security uh just used the general term of terrorism and interestingly the statement from Iran supreme leader does not mention Israel or United States by name although it it it promises a crushing response so I think in these contradictory statements

One can see the Dilemma faced by Iran because if the regime actually holds Israel or United States responsible then it’s obliged given the scale of this um Massacre to respond but a response would lead to a major regional war in which United States will be involved and if

They don’t actually um respond um then that also it’s it’s a problem for them uh given the damage which it creates to Iran’s um kind of deterrence uh in the region and its image of uh kind of regional hegemony which it seeks to kind of secure for itself Cameron Martin of

The University of Sussex thank you thank you let’s speak now to Simon maybon he’s a professor of international politics at Lancaster University who researches Iran and Middle East politics good to have you on DW now no group has yet claimed responsibility what do you think is the most likely option

Here well it’s really difficult to spec calate at this point given how precarious the entire Middle East is it’s easy to to list maybe four or five different groups because after all Iran is is in a bit of a a precarious position with a lot of of Rivals a lot

Of enemies and there’s a lot of groups that would want to commit such heinous acts against the Islamic Republic but it’s it’s also I think too early to try and speculate because specul ating could pour fuel onto the fire of an increasingly fraught and precarious Middle East with conflict in Gaza blasts

In Beirut now blasts in Iran it’s really quite a sensitive moment Iran quickly came out saying this was a terrorist attack coming from Iran’s enemies why do you think the regime came up with this very Swift explanation before very much was even known at all well it needs to demonstrate that it

Has some semblance of control some semblance of order and key officials were very quick to articulate that that this was back to being business as usual that it was back to being a very safe and secure environment but in order to do that it needed to demonstrate that

There were suspects there were probable groups and The Narrative of of a terrorist attack perpetrated by external enemies is one that we’ve seen used by by the Islamic Republic countless times over the years and indeed used by many other states who’ve endured brutal violent attacks and we know as I said

Previously there are a number of groups that have expressed anger frustration and violent condemnation against Iran in the past so that list of possible suspects that list of groups that might be held responsible for this is quite long just to be clear and just to give our viewers a sense of what we’re

Talking about here who are those groups so there’s two different types of groups I guess there’s the the state groups and there are the obvious um it’s it’s Israel and the United States after all it was the United States that assassinated kasum sumani four years ago

So they’re the the main sort of obvious external State threats and then there’s lots of other groups that either have roots in Iran and have expressed anger at the socioeconomic frustrations or the treatment of those groups the themselves elves um or groups that are sort of in

The periphery so we’re talking the likes of Islamic State and various um offshoots of Islamic State or disenfranchised um baluchi groups for example so again there’s a large number of groups that have been uh deeply affected by the politics and the philosophy of the Islamic Republic of Iran leading to widespread anger and

Frustration that has often erupted in violence over the past few decades do you think there could be any link here to the conflict in Gaza well that’s the easy narrative to make that there were allegations that Iran was in some way behind the Hamas terrorist attacks and that was that was

Quickly qued by Israeli and US officials but the narrative remains and if that is the case then it would be easy to see this as some form of retaliation we know that Israel has committed these types of attacks in Iran but typically these have been against um regime officials scientists or military officials

Typically linked to the uh the nuclear program not usually against civilians so there is a precedent here but what I think is really important to remember is as yet there is no evidence linking Iran to what happened on October the 7th and the Israelis have been very clear about

That and the Americans have been clear about it but yet the historical links the historical enity animosity that has that has been evident so very clearly evident in relations or indeed the Rivalry between Israel and Iran makes it very easy to tell that story and for people to believe it that was Simon

Maybon professor of international politics at Lancaster University thank you so much for your assessment thank you

Iran’s Supreme Leader has vowed to carry out a ‘harsh response’ after twin explosions in the country’s south killed over 100 people. There’s been no claim of responsibility yet for the blasts, which happened near the grave of former top commander Qassem Soleimani. Several people were also reported wounded in a stampede that followed the blasts in the southeastern city of Kerman. Mourners had gathered for a ceremony to mark four years since Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq. The EU has condemned the explosions as an ‘act of terror’ and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. The US has denied having any part and said it had no reason to believe Israel did either.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:44 Matthew Miller, US State Department Spokesman
01:05 Kamran Matin, University of Sussex
05:10 Simon Mabon, Lancaster University

Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/deutschewelleenglish?sub_confirmation=1

For more news go to: http://www.dw.com/en/
Follow DW on social media:
►Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deutschewellenews/
►Twitter: https://twitter.com/dwnews
►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwnews
►Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/dwnews_hangout
Für Videos in deutscher Sprache besuchen Sie: https://www.youtube.com/dwdeutsch

#Iran #Soleimani