Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that terrorists and their supporters targeted Iran’s democracy.

Two separate attacks shook Tehran on June 7. As reports said, several armed people tried to break their way into the Parliament building.

He hailed the recent presidential election, held in May, saying that high turnout was of concern to the enemies.

“Those who haven’t experienced democracy in their states, or those who are against democracy were unhappy with Iran’s election,” he said during the farewell ceremony, dedicated to the attack victims.

Rouhani won the latest round of presidential election in Iran, and took the president office for four more years.

According to him, the language of policy is democracy not terror.

Rouhani said that Iranian people have seen a lot of provocations and they will stick to their ways to reaching progressive and successful life. </s> Majlis (Iran’s Parliament), which came under a terror attack recently, is hosting a funeral ceremony for the victims of the incident, and another concomitant one, which targeted Imam Khomeini’s Mausoleum.

The Friday event was attended by the heads of Iran’s Executive, Legislative and Judiciary Branches, President Hassan Rouhani, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, and Judiciary Chief Sadeq Amoli-Larijani respectively.

Also joining the ceremony were government ministers, and Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammadi-Golpayegani, the head of the office of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

People take part in a funeral ceremony held in northeastern Iranian city of Bojnord on June 9, 2017 for the victims of a terrorist attack in Tehran. (Photo by IRNA)

Others included foreign ambassadors, and survivors of the Wednesday attacks, who were holding up pictures of the victims.

Addressing the ceremony, the parliament chief said, “Today is a hard day for the Iranian nation. Farewell to dear ones, who were sadly martyred.”

“The terrorists fell short of their [main] aim” and then started to blindly target civilians and employees, he said.

From left to right, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (4th) stands next to Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani and Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani during a funeral held in parliament, June 9, 2017. (Photo by IRNA)

Their targeting the locations, Larijani said, indicated their concentration on the “axes of the Iranian people’s religious democracy.”

Ayatollah Mohammadi-Golpayegani also delivered the Leader’s message of condolences to the event.

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Speaking on the sidelines of the event, the Iranian president said the terror assaults “were an act of revenge against democracy,” adding that “whenever the nation scores a victory, ill-wishers work to deliver a blow to the country and the nation.”

He was referring to the big turnout of Iranians in the May 19 presidential elections.

Rouhani added that it is not the first time the nation witnesses such acts of terror, stressing that “people will find their own path to national goals and unity, and the nation will undoubtedly emerge victorious.”

A funeral procession also started for the victims after the Friday Prayers in the capital.

Large groups of people are taking part in the ceremony, chanting slogans against Saudi Arabia, the US and Israel, whom they blame for supporting terrorism.

At least 17 people were killed and more than 50 injured in Tehran on Wednesday, when gunmen attacked Iran’s Parliament (Majlis) and the Mausoleum of the late Founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini.

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The Daesh Takfiri terrorist group claimed responsibility for the near-simultaneous assaults.

On Thursday, the Iranian Intelligence Ministry released the names of the five terrorists who were killed after carrying out the deadly attacks in Tehran.

Local police in Iran’s western province of Kermanshah also said two people have been arrested in connection with the double attacks, while over 90 handguns have been discovered during a security operation in Ravansar County, the Tasnim news agency reported. </s> A man hands a child to a security guard from Iran's parliament building after an assault of several attackers, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, June 7, 2017. Suicide bombers and gunmen stormed into Iran's parliament and targeted the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on Wednesday, killing a security guard and wounding 12 other people in rare twin attacks, with the siege at the legislature still underway. (Fars News Agency, Omid Vahabzadeh via AP)

A man hands a child to a security guard from Iran's parliament building after an assault of several attackers, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, June 7, 2017. Suicide bombers and gunmen stormed into Iran's parliament and targeted the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on Wednesday, killing a security guard and wounding 12 other people in rare twin attacks, with the siege at the legislature still underway. (Fars News Agency, Omid Vahabzadeh via AP)

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The Islamic State group claimed responsibility Wednesday for a pair of stunning attacks on Iran’s parliament and the tomb of its revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 40.

Tehran Police Chief Gen. Hossein Sajedinia announced late Wednesday night that five suspects had been detained for interrogation, according to a report in the semi-official ISNA news agency. Sajedinia did not offer any further details.

Reza Seifollahi, an official in the country’s Supreme National Security Council, was quoted by the independent Shargh daily as saying that the perpetrators of the attacks were Iranian nationals. He did not elaborate.

The bloodshed shocked the country and came as emboldened Sunni Arab states — backed by U.S. President Donald Trump — are hardening their stance against Shiite-ruled Iran.

The White House released a statement from Trump condemning the terrorist attacks in Tehran and offering condolences, but also implying that Iran is itself a sponsor of terrorism.

“We grieve and pray for the innocent victims of the terrorist attacks in Iran, and for the Iranian people, who are going through such challenging times,” the statement said. “We underscore that states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote.”

In recent years, Tehran has been heavily involved in conflicts in Syria and Iraq against the Islamic State, but had remained untouched by IS violence around the world. Iran has also battled Saudi-backed Sunni groups in both countries.

Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard indirectly blamed Saudi Arabia for the attacks. A statement issued Wednesday evening stopped short of alleging direct Saudi involvement but called it “meaningful” that the attacks followed Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia, where he strongly asserted Washington’s support for Riyadh.

The statement said Saudi Arabia “constantly supports” terrorists including the Islamic State group, adding that the IS claim of responsibility “reveals (Saudi Arabia’s) hand in this barbaric action.”

The “spilled blood of the innocent will not remain unavenged,” the Revolutionary Guard statement said.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader, used the attacks to defend Tehran’s involvement in wars abroad. He told a group of students that if “Iran had not resisted,” it would have faced even more troubles.

“The Iranian nation will go forward,” he added.

The violence began in midmorning when assailants with Kalashnikov rifles and explosives stormed the parliament complex where a legislative session had been in progress. The siege lasted for hours, and one of the attackers blew himself up inside, according to Iran’s state TV.

Images circulating in Iranian media showed gunmen held rifles near the windows of the complex. One showed a toddler being handed through a first-floor window to safety outside as an armed man looks on.

The IS group’s Aamaq news agency released a 24-second video purportedly shot inside the complex, showing a bloody, lifeless body on the floor next to a desk.

An Associated Press reporter saw several police snipers on the roofs of nearby buildings. Police helicopters circled the parliament and all mobile phone lines from inside were disconnected.

Shops in the area were closed as gunfire rang out and officials urged people to avoid public transportation. Witnesses said the attackers fired from the parliament building’s fourth floor at people in the streets.

“I was passing by one of the streets. I thought that children were playing with fireworks, but I realized people are hiding and lying down on the streets,” Ebrahim Ghanimi, who was around the parliament building, told the AP. “With the help of a taxi driver, I reached a nearby alley.”

As the parliament attack unfolded, gunmen and suicide bombers also struck outside Khomeini’s mausoleum on Tehran’s southern outskirts. Khomeini led the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the Western-backed shah to become Iran’s first supreme leader until his death in 1989.

Iran’s state broadcaster said a security guard was killed at the tomb and that one of the attackers was slain by security guards. A woman was also arrested. The revered shrine was not damaged.

The Interior Ministry said six assailants were killed — four at the parliament and two at the tomb. A senior Interior Ministry official told Iran’s state TV the male attackers wore women’s attire.

Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani called the attacks a cowardly act.

Saudi Arabia and Iran regularly accuse each other of supporting extremists in the region. Saudi Arabia has long pointed to the absence of IS attacks in Iran as a sign of Tehran’s culpability. For its part, Iran has cited Saudi Arabia’s support for jihadists and its backing of hard-line Sunni fighters in Syria.

Trump’s first overseas visit to Saudi Arabia last month positioned the U.S. firmly on the side of the kingdom and other Arab states in their stance against Iran. His assurances of Washington’s support emboldened hawkish royals in Saudi Arabia, which is at war in Yemen against Iranian-allied rebels.

The attacks are likely to deepen enmity and sharpen the regional battle for power between the two rivals. Tensions are running high this week following a cut in ties between key Arab powers and Qatar over accusations that the energy-rich nation supports terrorist groups and is aligning itself too closely with Iran.

Saudi Arabia has been a target of numerous lethal attacks by IS affiliates who see the kingdom’s Western-allied leadership as heretics. The group has also targeted Shiites in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. IS militants are fighting Iranian-backed forces in Syria and Iraq, and they view Shiites as apostates.

Nelly Lahoud, an expert on extremism at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Bahrain, said IS leaders may be looking to rally supporters through the attacks in Iran as they lose ground in Syria and Iraq.

“Now that they are unable to maintain the promise of territory, attacking Iran is to their advantage,” she said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if this were planned for a long time.”

On March 27, the IS group posted a 37-minute video in Farsi threatening Iran. The Clarion Project said the speakers claimed to represent various Iranian Sunni ethnic groups, such as the Baluchis and Ahvazis, and encouraged Iranian Sunnis to join the group.

Wednesday’s attacks, during the holy month of Ramadan that is observed by both Sunni and Shiite Muslims, came as the Islamic State is competing with al-Qaida for jihadi recruits.

Arab separatists are active in Iran’s southern city of Ahvaz, where they killed two policemen three weeks ago. Though most Iranians are Shiite, including separatists in Ahvaz, the eastern Baloch region is majority Sunni, although there are no recent census figures available. There is also a significant Sunni population in southern Hormozgan province.

The attacks drew condemnation from Iran’s allies — and also from the United States. That was notable because of the deep distrust between Tehran and Washington, which don’t have diplomatic relations.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the U.S. expressed condolences to the victims and their families.

“The depravity of terrorism has no place in a peaceful, civilized world,” Nauert said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent condolences and confirmed Moscow’s willingness to aid its ally. Syria’s Foreign Ministry also condemned the attacks, which it said were backed by various governments that it did not specify.

The IS group often claims attacks around the world, even when links to the group cannot be confirmed. Iranian security officials have not said who might have been behind the attacks, although state media called the assailants “terrorists.”

There are concerns that a doubling down on security could lead to a wider clampdown on the opposition in Iran. Rights group Amnesty International urged Iranian authorities to carry out impartial investigations into the attacks.

Charlie Winter, a senior research fellow at King’s College London, said the attacks could provoke a disproportionate counterterrorism response in Iran.

“Iranian officials will be called upon to step up intervention in Iraq (and) Syria big time,” he said, adding that Wednesday’s attacks will significantly boost IS morale amid battlefield defeats.

___

Batrawy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran; Sarah El Deeb and Phillip Issa in Beirut; Lori Hinnant in Paris; and producers Mohammad Nasiri and Mahdi Fattahi, and cameraman Saeed Sarmadi in Tehran contributed. </s> The Islamic State (Isil) has claimed responsibility for a coordinated attack by gunmen and suicide bombers on Iran’s parliament and the the shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of the Iranian Revolution.

Teams of attackers struck the two sites in Tehran early on Wednesday morning, killing at least 12 people and wounding dozens of others, according to Iranian state media. If confirmed that Isil was behind the attack, it would be their most ambitious operation yet against Iran.

One suicide bomber blew themselves up at the Khomeini shrine, which is highly symbolic for Iran’s theocratic leadership. A second bomber later detonated their explosives at the parliament during a stand off with security forces.

Isil’s Amaq news agency released a short statement soon after the attacks saying: “Fighters from the Islamic State attacked the shrine of Khomeini and the Iranian parliament building in the centre of Tehran.”

The jihadist group claimed credit with unusual speed and released a video of the attackers inside the parliament building. </s> ANKARA: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said an attack on Syria by the United States, France and Britain on Saturday (Apr 14) was a crime and would not achieve any gains.

"Today's dawn attack on Syria is a crime. I clearly declare that the president of the United States, the president of France and the British prime minister are criminals," Khamenei said in a speech, according to his Twitter account.

"They will not benefit (from the attack) as they went to Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan in the past years and committed such crimes and did not gain any benefits," Khamenei said.

Iran - the dominant Shi’ite Muslim power which is in rivalry with Saudi Arabia and the United States’ other Sunni Arab friends - has fought decades of sectarian proxy wars in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.

Iran's pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani also warned that the US-led missile attack on Syria would lead to further destruction in the Middle East, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

"Such attacks will have no result but more destruction ... the Americans want to justify their presence in the region by such attacks," Rouhani was quoted as saying by Tasnim.

Rouhani signalled that Iran's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would grow.

"The Syrian nation will continue to resist against foreign aggression ... Iran has always helped and will continue to support oppressed nations in the region and around the globe," Rouhani said.

Iranian Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan said: "The Syrian people will certainly answer these attacks and the people of the world should condemn this aggression," Fars news agency reported.

An official in Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the Islamic Republic's most powerful arm, said the fallout from the attacks will be at Washington's expense.

"With this attack ... the situation will become more complex, and this will surely be at the expense of the United States, which will be responsible for the aftermath of upcoming regional events that will certainly not be in their interest," Yadollah Javani, the Guards' deputy head for political affairs, told Fars news agency.

"The resistance front will be strengthened and it will have more capacity to act against (US) acts of intervention. Americans should expect the consequences of their actions," Javani said.

Iran often refers to regional countries and forces opposed to Israel and the United States as a "resistance front".

"Undoubtedly, the United States and its allies, which took military action against Syria despite the absence of any proven evidence ... will assume responsibility for the regional and trans-regional consequences of this adventurism," Iran's Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by state media.

"Iran is opposed to the use of chemical weapons on the basis of religious, legal and ethical standards, while at the same time it ... strongly condemns (using this) as an excuse to commit aggression against a sovereign state," it said.

Iran has been Assad's most supportive ally against insurgents throughout the conflict. Iran-backed militias helped his army stem rebel advances and, following Russia’s entry into the war in 2015, turn the tide decisively in Assad’s favour.

Analyst Hossein Sheikholeslam, a former Iranian ambassador to Damascus, told state television the attacks would help unite Syrians behind the government.

"These attacks will stabilise the Syrian government ... and unite the different tribes in Syria as Syrians become aware of their honour and come to the defence of the independence, territorial integrity and the government of their country," Sheikholeslam said. </s> Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said an attack on Syria by the United States, France and Britain on Saturday was a crime and would not achieve any gains.

“Today’s dawn attack on Syria is a crime. I clearly declare that the president of the United States, the president of France and the British prime minister are criminals,” Khamenei said in a speech, according to his Twitter account.

“They will not benefit (from the attack) as they went to Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan in the past years and committed such crimes and did not gain any benefits,” Khamenei said.

Iran - the dominant Shi’ite Muslim power which is in rivalry with Saudi Arabia and the United States’ other Sunni Arab friends - has fought decades of sectarian proxy wars in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.

Iran’s pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani also warned that the U.S.-led missile attack on Syria would lead to further destruction in the Middle East, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

“Such attacks will have no result but more destruction ... the Americans want to justify their presence in the region by such attacks,” Rouhani was quoted as saying by Tasnim.

Rouhani signalled that Iran’s support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would grow.

“The Syrian nation will continue to resist against foreign aggression ...Iran has always helped and will continue to support oppressed nations in the region and around the globe,” Rouhani said.

Iranian Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan said: “The Syrian people will certainly answer these attacks and the people of the world should condemn this aggression,” Fars news agency reported.

An official in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the Islamic Republic’s most powerful arm, said the fallout from the attacks will be at Washington’s expense.

“With this attack ... the situation will become more complex, and this will surely be at the expense of the United States, which will be responsible for the aftermath of upcoming regional events that will certainly not be in their interest,” Yadollah Javani, the Guards’ deputy head for political affairs, told Fars news agency.

“The resistance front will be strengthened and it will have more capacity to act against (U.S.) acts of intervention. Americans should expect the consequences of their actions,” Javani said.

Iran often refers to regional countries and forces opposed to Israel and the United States as a “resistance front”.

“Undoubtedly, the United States and its allies, which took military action against Syria despite the absence of any proven evidence ... will assume responsibility for the regional and trans-regional consequences of this adventurism,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by state media.

“Iran is opposed to the use of chemical weapons on the basis of religious, legal and ethical standards, while at the same time it ... strongly condemns (using this) as an excuse to commit aggression against a sovereign state,” it said.

Iran has been Assad’s most supportive ally against insurgents throughout the conflict. Iran-backed militias helped his army stem rebel advances and, following Russia’s entry into the war in 2015, turn the tide decisively in Assad’s favour.

Analyst Hossein Sheikholeslam, a former Iranian ambassador to Damascus, told state television the attacks would help unite Syrians behind the government.

“These attacks will stabilise the Syrian government... and unite the different tribes in Syria as Syrians become aware of their honour and come to the defence of the independence, territorial integrity and the government of their country,” Sheikholeslam said. </s> TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that an unnamed U.S.-allied country in the Persian Gulf was behind an attack on a military parade that killed 25 people and wounded nearly 70.

Rouhani did not identify those behind Saturday's attack, which was claimed by an Arab separatist group. He could have been referring to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates or Bahrain — close U.S. military allies that view Iran as a regional menace over its support for militant groups across the Middle East.

"All of those small mercenary countries that we see in this region are backed by America. It is Americans who instigate them and provide them with necessary means to commit these crimes," Rouhani said.

Saturday's attack, in which militants disguised as soldiers opened fire on an annual Iranian military parade in Ahvaz, in the oil-rich southwest, was the deadliest attack in the country in nearly a decade. Women and children scattered along with once-marching Revolutionary Guard soldiers as heavy gunfire rang out, the chaos captured live on state television.

The region's Arab separatists, once only known for nighttime attacks on unguarded oil pipelines, claimed responsibility for the assault, and Iranian officials appeared to believe the claim. Iran summoned diplomats from Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands early Sunday for allegedly harboring "members of the terrorist group" that launched the attack.

The ministry later summoned the envoy of the United Arab Emirates as well over what it called the "irresponsible and insulting statements" of an Emirati adviser, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had earlier blamed regional countries and their "U.S. masters" for funding and arming the separatists, issuing a stark warning as regional tensions remain high in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal.

"Iran will respond swiftly and decisively in defense of Iranian lives," Zarif wrote on Twitter.

The parade was one of many around the country marking the start of Iran's long 1980s war with Iraq, commemorations known as the "Sacred Defense Week."

The attack killed at least 25 people and wounded nearly 70, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. It said gunmen wore military uniforms and targeted a riser where military and police commanders were sitting. State TV hours later reported that all four gunmen had been killed.

At least eight of the dead served in the Revolutionary Guard, an elite paramilitary unit that answers only to Iran's supreme leader, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. The Guard responded to the attack on Sunday, warning it would seek "deadly and unforgiving revenge in the near future."

Tensions have been on the rise since the Trump administration pulled out of the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran earlier this year and began restoring sanctions that were eased under the deal. It also has steadily ramped up pressure on Iran to try to get it to stop what Washington calls its "malign activities" in the region.

The U.S. government nevertheless strongly condemned Saturday's attack and expressed its sympathy, saying it "condemns all acts of terrorism and the loss of any innocent lives."

Initially, authorities described the assailants as "takfiri gunmen," a term previously used to describe the Islamic State group. Iran has been deeply involved in the fight against IS in Iraq and has aided Syrian President Bashar Assad in his country's long civil war.

But later, state media and government officials seemed to come to the consensus that Arab separatists in the region were responsible. The separatists accuse Iran's Persian-dominated government of discriminating against its ethnic Arab minority.

Khuzestan province also has seen recent protests over Iran's nationwide drought, as well as economic protests.

Iran has blamed its Mideast archrival, the Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for funding Arab separatists. State media in Saudi Arabia did not immediately acknowledge the attack, though a Saudi-linked, Farsi-language satellite channel based in the United Kingdom immediately carried an interview with an Ahvazi activist claiming Saturday's attack.

Hamid Baeidinejad, Iran's ambassador to the U.K., called the channel's decision a "heinous act" in a post on Twitter and said his country would file a complaint with British authorities over the broadcast. Early Sunday, a Foreign Ministry statement similarly criticized Britain and said Danish and Dutch diplomats were told Iran "already warned" their governments about harboring Arab separatists.

Yacoub Hor al-Tostari, a spokesman for the Arab Struggle Movement to Liberate Ahvaz, told The Associated Press that members of an umbrella group of Ahvazi activists his organization leads carried out the attack.

The attack undermined the Iranian government "on the day it wants to give a message to the world that it is powerful and in control," al-Tostari said. To bolster his claim, he gave details about one of the attackers that the AP could not immediately verify.

The Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for the attack, but provided no evidence it carried out the assault. They also initially wrongly said the attack targeted Rouhani, who was in Tehran at the time. The militants have made a string of false claims in the wake of major defeats in Iraq and Syria.

The Islamic State group carried out a coordinated assault in June 2017 on parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. At least 18 people were killed and more than 50 wounded.

In the last decade, mass-casualty militant attacks have been incredibly rare. In 2009, more than 40 people, including six Guard commanders, were killed in a suicide attack by Sunni extremists in Iran's Sistan and Baluchistan province.

Gambrell reported from in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, Maamoun Youssef in Cairo and television producer Mohammad Nasiri in Tehran contributed. </s> TEHERAN (AFP) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani vowed a "crushing" response after assailants sprayed a crowd with gunfire, shooting dead at least 29 people including women and children on Saturday (Sept 22) at a military parade near the Iraqi border.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group claimed responsibility for the rare assault in the south-western city of Ahvaz, while Iranian officials blamed "a foreign regime" backed by the United States.

A local journalist who witnessed the attack said shots rang out for 10 to 15 minutes and that at least one of the assailants, armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, wore the uniform of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

"We realised it was a terrorist attack, as bodyguards (of officials) started shooting," Mr Behrad Ghasemi told AFP.

"Everything went haywire and soldiers started running."

"The terrorists had no particular target and didn't really seem to care, as they shot anyone they could with rapid gunfire."

Ahvaz lies in Khuzestan, a province bordering Iraq that has a large ethnic Arab community and has seen separatist violence in the past that Iran has blamed on its regional rivals.

Iran summoned diplomats from Denmark, the Netherlands and Britain over their "hosting of some members of the terrorist group" which carried out the attack, state media said on Sunday.

"It is not acceptable that the European Union does not blacklist members of these terrorist groups as long as they do not perpetrate a crime on... European soil," official news agency IRNA quoted foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi as saying.

After addressing a similar parade in Teheran to commemorate the start of the 1980-1988 war with Iraq, Mr Rouhani warned that "the response of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the smallest threat will be crushing".

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the attack was carried out by "terrorists recruited, trained, armed & paid by a foreign regime".

"Iran holds regional terror sponsors and their US masters accountable for such attacks," he wrote on Twitter.

ISIS claimed the attack via its propaganda mouthpiece Amaq news agency and, according to intelligence monitor SITE, said the attack was in response to Iranian involvement in conflicts across the region.

State television gave a toll of 29 dead and 57 wounded, while IRNA said those killed included women and children who were spectators at the parade.

Three attackers were killed at the scene and the fourth died later of his injuries, said armed forces spokesman Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi.

The Revolutionary Guards accused Shi'ite-dominated Iran's Sunni arch-rival Saudi Arabia of funding the attackers, while Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also blamed Iran's pro-US rivals.

Teheran-backed Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hizbollah condemned the "terrorist" attack, saying that "repulsive Satanic hands" were behind it.

"This operation was a continuation of the other forms of war the United States and its allies are waging, directly or indirectly," it said.

In a message to Russia's close regional ally, President Vladimir Putin said he was "appalled by this bloody crime", while Syria, another ally, neighbouring Turkey and France also expressed condolences.

Khuzestan was a major battleground of the 1980s war with Iraq and the province saw unrest in 2005 and 2011, but has since been largely quiet.

Kurdish rebels frequently attack military patrols on the border further north, but attacks on regime targets in major cities are rare.

On June 7, 2017, in Teheran, 17 people were killed and dozens wounded in simultaneous attacks on the Parliament and on the tomb of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini - the first inside Iran claimed by ISIS.

In April, 26 alleged members of the Sunni extremist group went on trial in connection with the attacks.

The attack in Ahvaz came as Mr Rouhani and other dignitaries attended the main anniversary parade in Teheran.

In a keynote speech, he vowed to boost Iran's ballistic missile capabilities, despite Western concerns that were cited by his US counterpart Donald Trump in May when he abandoned a landmark nuclear deal with Teheran.

"We will never decrease our defensive capabilities... We will increase them day by day," Mr Rouhani said.

"The fact that the missiles anger (the West) shows they are our most effective weapons."

The US reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran last month, and another round of even harsher sanctions targeting Iran's vital oil sector is set to go back into effect on Nov 5.

Washington has said it is ready to open talks on a new agreement to replace the July 2015 accord, but Teheran has repeatedly said it cannot negotiate under pressure from sanctions.

Mr Rouhani leaves for New York on Sunday to attend this week's United Nations General Assembly along with Mr Trump, but Iran has repeatedly ruled out any meeting. </s> Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that an unnamed U.S.-allied country in the Persian Gulf was behind an attack on a military parade that killed 25 people and wounded nearly 70.

Rouhani did not identify those behind Saturday’s attack, which was claimed by an Arab separatist group. He could have been referring to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates or Bahrain — close U.S. military allies that view Iran as a regional menace over its support for militant groups across the Middle East.

“All of those small mercenary countries that we see in this region are backed by America. It is Americans who instigate them and provide them with necessary means to commit these crimes,” Rouhani said.

Saturday’s attack, in which militants disguised as soldiers opened fire on an annual Iranian military parade in Ahvaz, in the oil-rich southwest, was the deadliest attack in the country in nearly a decade. Women and children scattered along with once-marching Revolutionary Guard soldiers as heavy gunfire rang out, the chaos captured live on state television.

The region’s Arab separatists, once only known for nighttime attacks on unguarded oil pipelines, claimed responsibility for the assault, and Iranian officials appeared to believe the claim. Iran summoned diplomats from Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands early Sunday for allegedly harboring “members of the terrorist group” that launched the attack.

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The ministry later summoned the envoy of the United Arab Emirates as well over what it called the “irresponsible and insulting statements” of an Emirati adviser, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had earlier blamed regional countries and their “U.S. masters” for funding and arming the separatists, issuing a stark warning as regional tensions remain high in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal.

“Iran will respond swiftly and decisively in defense of Iranian lives,” Zarif wrote on Twitter.

The parade was one of many around the country marking the start of Iran’s long 1980s war with Iraq, commemorations known as the “Sacred Defense Week.”

The attack killed at least 25 people and wounded nearly 70, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. It said gunmen wore military uniforms and targeted a riser where military and police commanders were sitting. State TV hours later reported that all four gunmen had been killed.

At least eight of the dead served in the Revolutionary Guard, an elite paramilitary unit that answers only to Iran’s supreme leader, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. The Guard responded to the attack on Sunday, warning it would seek “deadly and unforgiving revenge in the near future.”

Tensions have been on the rise since the Trump administration pulled out of the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran earlier this year and began restoring sanctions that were eased under the deal. It also has steadily ramped up pressure on Iran to try to get it to stop what Washington calls its “malign activities” in the region.

The U.S. government nevertheless strongly condemned Saturday’s attack and expressed its sympathy, saying it “condemns all acts of terrorism and the loss of any innocent lives.”

Initially, authorities described the assailants as “takfiri gunmen,” a term previously used to describe the Islamic State group. Iran has been deeply involved in the fight against IS in Iraq and has aided Syrian President Bashar Assad in his country’s long civil war.

But later, state media and government officials seemed to come to the consensus that Arab separatists in the region were responsible. The separatists accuse Iran’s Persian-dominated government of discriminating against its ethnic Arab minority.

Khuzestan province also has seen recent protests over Iran’s nationwide drought, as well as economic protests.

Iran has blamed its Mideast archrival, the Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for funding Arab separatists. State media in Saudi Arabia did not immediately acknowledge the attack, though a Saudi-linked, Farsi-language satellite channel based in the United Kingdom immediately carried an interview with an Ahvazi activist claiming Saturday’s attack.

Hamid Baeidinejad, Iran’s ambassador to the U.K., called the channel’s decision a “heinous act” in a post on Twitter and said his country would file a complaint with British authorities over the broadcast. Early Sunday, a Foreign Ministry statement similarly criticized Britain and said Danish and Dutch diplomats were told Iran “already warned” their governments about harboring Arab separatists.

Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen condemned the attack and stressed that there would be “consequences” if it turns out that those responsible have connections to Denmark.

Yacoub Hor al-Tostari, a spokesman for the Arab Struggle Movement to Liberate Ahvaz, told The Associated Press that members of an umbrella group of Ahvazi activists his organization leads carried out the attack.

The attack undermined the Iranian government “on the day it wants to give a message to the world that it is powerful and in control,” al-Tostari said. To bolster his claim, he gave details about one of the attackers that the AP could not immediately verify.

The Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for the attack, but provided no evidence it carried out the assault. They also initially wrongly said the attack targeted Rouhani, who was in Tehran at the time. The militants have made a string of false claims in the wake of major defeats in Iraq and Syria.

The Islamic State group carried out a coordinated assault in June 2017 on parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. At least 18 people were killed and more than 50 wounded.

In the last decade, mass-casualty militant attacks have been incredibly rare. In 2009, more than 40 people, including six Guard commanders, were killed in a suicide attack by Sunni extremists in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchistan province.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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President Hassan Rouhani says the attacks targeted peace and democracy.