Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has asked Pakistan to hand overthose he says are behind a suicide bombing Sunday that killed more than40 people, including several top commanders of the elite RevolutionaryGuard. Iranian officials alsoaccuse the United States and Britain of supporting the attackers.
Mr. Ahmadinejad told Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari that thepresence of "terrorist elements in Pakistan" cannot be justified andinsisted Islamabad arrest those involved.
Iranian state mediareport the two spoke by phone one day after a suicide bomber killedmore than 40 people in the southeastern region Sistan-Baluchistan,along the Pakistani border.
An internet statement in the name ofthe militant group Jundallah claimed responsibility for the blast. Theattack, on Revolutionary Guard commanders and Sunni and Shi'ite triballeaders gathering for a reconciliation meeting, was among the mostbrazen in the Islamic Republic in years.
Ali Nouri Zadeh is thedirector of the Center for Arab and Iranian Studies in London. Heargues that the security breach has hurt the image of the RevolutionaryGuard, which he notes, took part in the crackdown on anti-governmentprotests earlier this year.
"Itshowed the regime, which is very strong in front of innocent people,unarmed people in the streets of Tehran or Tehran University or thestreets of Isfahan or other cities, is very weak in front of people whoare carrying arms," said Zadeh.
The head of the Guard, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, accused British and U.S. agents of training the militants in Pakistan.
The United States has condemned the attack and denied any involvement.
Jundallahleader Abdolmalek Rigi says his group is fighting discriminationagainst his people, ethnic Baluchis, members of Iran's Sunni minority. His group also claimed responsibility for an attack on a Shi'ite mosquein Iran earlier this year that killed about two dozen people.
Politicalanalyst Zadeh says state discrimination against ethnic Baluchis and thepoverty of the area, also a center of drug smuggling, give Jundallahmore than enough support from the local population.
"The Baluch are very upset. They are desperate. They are poor. In parts of Baluchistan, people are living in the Stone Age," Zadeh said.
Thearea has suffered under a low-level insurgency for years. Militaryanalysts believe Iran is wary of cracking down too hard, for fear ofdrawing in other militants from neighboring Pakistan and Afghanistan.