The violent attack on Salman Rushdie is a plot by the United States, which “probably wants to spread Islamophobia in the world”, an Iranian newspaper said on Sunday, although there has been no official reaction from the Islamic Republic yet, according to AFP.

A British writer sentenced to death by an Iranian fatwa in 1989, a year after publishing The Satanic Verses, was stabbed ten times on Friday in New York state (northeastern United States). This attack outraged the West. , but was endorsed by extremists in Iran and Pakistan.

“The attack was carried out by a young Muslim who was not born when Salman Rushdie wrote his satanic book and who wanted revenge on him,” the ultra-conservative daily Javan wrote on Sunday.

The attacker, Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old Lebanese-American, was born a few years after the publication of The Satanic Verses, a satirical novel considered by most strict Muslims to be blasphemy against the Koran and the Prophet Muhammad. .

The Javan newspaper spreads the hypothesis of an American conspiracy: “Another scenario is that the United States probably wants to spread Islamophobia in the world,” Javan adds.

For the Kayhan daily newspaper, “the attack on Salman Rushdie demonstrated the weakness of the American intelligence services and demonstrated that even strict security measures cannot prevent attacks.”

“The attack on Salman Rushdie also proves that it is not difficult to take revenge on criminals on American soil. Now (former President Donald) Trump and (former Secretary of State Mike) Pompeo will feel more threatened,” Keyhan added.

Thus, the newspaper threatens these two former officials, who are “the main perpetrators of the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani”, eliminated during the American raid in Iraq in 2020. He was the head of the Qods Force, the external operations branch of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideology of Iran’s army.

The authorities of Iran have not yet reacted to the attempt on the 75-year-old writer, who remains in hospital in a serious condition.

“I don’t see the involvement of the Iranian state in this attack, but there is no doubt that it will increase the United States’ mistrust of Iran,” said Thierry Coville, an Iran expert and researcher at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations (IRIS), according to AFP.

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