“The west must cease financing and harboring terrorists. From their safe havens in US and Europe, they promote hatred, agitate & organize murder & mayhem, and shamelessly claim responsibility for the murder of innocent Iranian civilians. Smokescreens can’t obscure this hypocrisy,” Zarif tweeted late on Saturday.
The tweet came after Iran’s Intelligence Ministry said in a statement on Saturday it had arrested the ringleader of a terrorist group based in the United States.
The ministry said it has dealt a heavy blow to the Tondar group that planned and carried out a deadly terrorist attack on Seyyed al-Shohada Mosque in the southern city of Shiraz, Fars Province, in 2008, which killed 14 people and wounded 215 others.
It noted that the terrorist group had also planned to carry out other large-scale operations, like blowing up several places, including Sivand Dam in Shiraz, the mausoleum of the late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini in southern Tehran, and Tehran International Book Fair, which were all foiled.