In a Tuesday meeting with the bereaved families of the Iranian diplomats martyred by Taliban militants in Mazar Sharif 17 years ago, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said the Mazar Sharif terror attack serves as another evidence that the Iranian nation and officials have always been victimized by terrorism.
“At that time, no one imagined that the terrorist groups might actually attack and kill Iranian diplomats since Taliban had just been formed and Mazar Sharif in the northern Afghanistan was in the control of the Northern Alliance; of course, the intelligence services of certain countries were also to be blamed for the attack,” said Rouhani.
President Rouhani noted that Iranian diplomats and embassies have been targeted by terrorists in other parts of the world, adding, “this shows that the Islamic Republic is an anti-terror government and quite contrary to what some countries claim that Tehran backs terrorism, it has been a victim of terrorism since the Islamic Revolution,” he said.
On August 8, 1998, Taliban militants killed 10 Iranian diplomats and an Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) correspondent in Mazar Sharif.