Fars News Agency, a semi-official media resource affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, released and then pulled a video appearing to threaten the Saudi and UAE capitals with destruction in the aftermath of the terrorism in Ahvaz.
The Twitter video, which features a compilation of clips, was copied by a few users before being deleted, and shows footage of the Ahvaz attack interlaced with footage of Iranian missiles taking off, along with maps of the cities of Iranian adversaries, including Jerusalem, targeted by sniper scopes.
Tensions between Iran and its neighbors escalated after Iranian officials accused its neighbors, as well as the United States and Israel, of launching the act of terrorism in the country's south.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei described the terror attack as "a continuation of the plots of the regional states that are puppets of the United States," saying the goal of these plots was "to create insecurity in our dear country," and vowing to bring those responsible to justice.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley rejected US involvement in the attack, advising Tehran to "look in the mirror," prompting President Hassan Rouhani to ask what "Americans [would] think if we were to say such a thing about the 9/11 terrorist attacks."
Terrorists opened fire on military personnel and civilian onlookers during a military parade dedicated to the anniversary of the start of the Iran-Iraq War in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz on Saturday. The Saudi-linked Patriotic Arab Democratic Movement in Ahvaz has allegedly claimed responsibility. Daesh (ISIS/ISIL)* also claimed responsibility. At least 25 Iranian soldiers and civilians were killed. The five assailants were also killed.
*A terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries.