Tehran — Iran on Monday denied any hyperlink with the attacker of British writer Salman Rushdie however blamed the author himself for "insulting" Islam within the novel "The Satanic Verses."
"We categorically deny" any hyperlink with the assault and "nobody has the best to accuse the Islamic Republic of Iran," mentioned overseas ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani in Tehran's first official response to Friday's stabbing.
"On this assault, we don't contemplate anybody aside from Salman Rushdie and his supporters worthy of blame and even condemnation," he mentioned at his weekly press convention in Tehran. "By insulting the sacred issues of Islam and crossing the pink traces of greater than 1.5 billion Muslims and all followers of the divine religions, Salman Rushdie has uncovered himself to the anger and rage of the folks."
Rushdie, 75, was left on a ventilator with a number of stab wounds after he was attacked at a literary occasion Friday in upstate New York.
Literary agent Andrew Wylie mentioned Sunday that Rushdie was "on the street to restoration." He mentioned the writer had been faraway from the ventilator on Saturday and was capable of discuss and joke, however he cautioned that whereas he was "headed in the best path," his restoration could be a protracted course of, and he may lose an eye fixed.
"Although his life altering accidents are extreme, his normal feisty & defiant sense of humour stays intact," Rushdie's son Zafar Rushdie mentioned in a assertion on Sunday, stressing that his father remained in vital situation.
The prize-winning author had spent years underneath police safety after Iranian leaders in 1989 referred to as for his killing over his portrayal of Islam and the Prophet Mohammed within the novel.
The suspected assailant, 24-year-old Hadi Matar from New Jersey, was wrestled to the bottom by employees and viewers members earlier than being taken into police custody.
He was later arraigned in court docket and pleaded not responsible to tried homicide expenses.
In 1989, Iran's then-supreme chief, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a non secular decree, or fatwa, ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie for what he deemed the blasphemous nature of "The Satanic Verses."
Khomeini died quickly after, and Iranian leaders since have put little give attention to the writer, however the fatwa was by no means formally lifted. A number of translators of the e book have been attacked.
The assault on Rushdie got here at a delicate second in Iran's talks with main powers on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal deserted by america in 2018, in return for the re-lifting of crippling U.S. sanctions.
The overseas ministry spokesman Kanani on Monday careworn the place that Rushdie, not Iran, was guilty for the assault towards him.
Commenting on the novel, Kanani mentioned "the anger at the moment at this inappropriate motion was not restricted to Iran and the Islamic Republic. Thousands and thousands of individuals in Arab, Islamic and non-Islamic international locations reacted with anger. Condemning the motion of the attacker on the one hand and absolving the motion of the one who insults sacred and Islamic issues on the opposite is totally contradictory."
Greater than 30 years after its publication, the e book and its writer stay deeply inflammatory in Iran.
Iranians at Tehran's e book market, when requested by AFP on Saturday to touch upon the assault, didn't overtly condemn the stabbing, which has sparked outrage within the West.
The ultra-conservative Kayhan newspaper, whose director is appointed by present supreme chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, greeted the assault.
"Bravo to this brave and duty-conscious man who attacked the apostate and wicked Salman Rushdie in New York," it mentioned.
Except for reformist publication Etemad, Iranian media adopted the same line, additionally describing Rushdie as an "apostate."
One state-owned paper in Iran mentioned that the "neck of the satan" had been "reduce by a razor."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday condemned Iranian state media for having "gloated" in regards to the assault, calling it "despicable."