In what we are sure many will see as the most ironic headline of the day, Reuters reports Iran said on Sunday the London attacks were a "wake-up call" and urged Western states to go after ideological and financial sources of terrorism, state media reported, in a thinly veiled reference to Saudi Arabia.
Having been the center of attention during President Trump's recent trip:
“The United States and Israel can declare with one voice that Iran must never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon – never, ever – and must cease its deadly funding, training and equipping of terrorists and militias, and it must cease immediately,” Trump said in at a meeting in Jerusalem with the Israeli president, Reuven Rivlin.
Trump added that he had detected, too, “a growing realisation among your Arab neighbours that they have common cause with you in the threat posed by Iran”.
As Reuters notes, Iran denies Western charges of sponsoring terrorism, and accuses Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi brand of Sunni Islam and funding from its arch-rival of being behind Sunni militant groups who have been behind a recent spate of deadly attacks in Europe. Saudi Arabia, the bastion of Sunni Islam and a close U.S. ally, denies backing terrorism and has cracked down on jihadists at home, jailing thousands, stopping hundreds from travelling to fight abroad and cutting militant finances.
Shi'ite Muslim power Iran and Saudi Arabia are longstanding religious and political arch-rivals and often accuse each other of backing terrorism. Relations are fraught as they support each other's foes in regional wars such as in Yemen, Iraq and Syria.
And it appears Iran has had enough. Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi is quoted by the official Iranian news agency IRNA as saying:
"Repeated blind terror attacks around the world are a wake-up call for the world community,"
"To uproot terror, it is necessary that they (Western states) address the root causes as well as the main financial and ideological sources of extremism and violence, which are clear to everyone,"
'Clear' Indeed.