Iran blames west for deadly suicide bombing.

Sometimes Ahmadinejad is simply dumb, and this is one of those times. A suicide bomb has gone off in one of his most unstable provinces, killing six of his commanders and 37 others.

At a time when his country is in turmoil over his disputed re-election, there are many possible suspects for such an atrocity; but where does Ahmadinejad seek to place the blame?

Iran's Revolutionary Guards today vowed to take revenge after blaming Britain and the US for a suicide bombing that killed six of its commanders and 37 others in one of the country's most unstable provinces.

The attack, which killed the deputy commander of the guard's ground forces, General Noor Ali Shooshtari, and Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh, the provincial commander for Sistan-Baluchistan, inflicted Iran's worst military casualties in years and raised questions of intelligence and security failures in a region long blighted by a violent Sunni insurgency.

A Sunni group, Jundallah ("soldiers of God"), claimed responsibility and said it was a response to "the constant crime of the regime in Baluchistan". It named the bomber as Abdol Vahed Mohammadi Saravani.

I know that Ahmadinejad will be seeking to underplay any link between his controversial re-election and this latest attack, but it is simply dumb to try to link this to the US and the UK . And the fact is that Jundallah have already admitted responsibility and they have a proven track record for this kind of activity:

The attack appeared to be a direct challenge to the Revolutionary Guards, who took over direct responsibility for Sistan-Baluchistan's security last April. The guards have taken an increasingly prominent role in Iranian affairs in recent times under the auspices of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Jundallah has taken up arms on behalf of Sistan-Baluchistan's Sunni Baluch population, which it says suffers discrimination at the hands of Iran's Shia rulers. Commanded by Abdolmalek Rigi, the group claims to have killed more than 400 Iranian troops during its insurgency.

It claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed 25 people at a Shia mosque in Zahedan, Sistan-Baluchistan's provincial capital, last May. The authorities responded by hanging 13 group members they said had been involved.

However, having witnessed some people in the west who were dumb enough to buy their leaders attempts to link Saddam Hussein and 9-11, it should surprise no-one if there are some Iranians gullible enough to swallow this obviously false narrative.

Some people are simply authoritarian at heart and believe everything which they are told by those in power. They have some need to believe that their leaders "know things" which they don't, and they willingly surrender all common sense to parrot whatever official line is being handed down from above.

So perhaps Ahmadinejad, like Bush and Blair in the west, will have some success pedaling this particular piece of tosh in Iran, but it is still an unwise path for him to take.

His government are due to meet with American and European officials in Vienna to discuss his nuclear programme, so it is hardly helping get things off to a good start by preparing for the meeting by accusing the US and UK of participating in a practice which they have no record of employing.

Obama has offered an open hand to Ahmadinejad if he will only first unclench his fist. Ahmadinejad, already weakened by questions of the legitimacy of his re-election, sends his envoy to Vienna with his fist tightly clenched shut. As I say, that's simply dumb.

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Tags: Ahmadinejad, Iran, Obama, Vienna, Jundallah, UK, US