US envoy Haley rejects Iran blame over military parade attack

WASHINGTON — Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Sunday rejected Iranian finger-pointing at Washington over a deadly parade attack, saying Iranian leaders should look closer to home.

Before leaving for the United Nations on Sunday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani accused other countries including the United States of provoking the shooting attack on a military parade that killed 25 people on Saturday.

Haley dismissed his comments as rhetoric.

"He's got the Iranian people are protesting, every ounce of money that goes into Iran goes into his military, he has oppressed his people for a long time and he needs to look at his own base to figure out where that's coming from," she told CNN's "State of the Union."

"He can blame us all he wants. The thing he's got to do is look at the mirror."

Iran's Revolutionary Guards vowed on Sunday to wreak "deadly and unforgettable" vengeance for the attack, which killed 12 of their comrades, and Tehran accused US-backed Gulf Arab states of backing the gunmen.

There has been a blizzard of furious statements from top Iranian officials blaming the United States and Gulf kingdoms for the bloodshed and threatening a tough response.

"America wants to cause chaos and unrest in our country so that it can return to this country, but these are unreal fantasies and they will never achieve their goals," Rouhani said. — Reuters