Condemning Kabul blasts, Zarif says Takfiri terrorists strangers to Islam, humanity

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has expressed grief over a bloody explosion outside a school in Afghanistan’s capital, saying the tragic incident shows that Takfiri terrorists are strangers to Islam and humanity.

“We are mourning the little innocent fasting girls who became the oppressed victims of the Takfiri Daesh,” Zarif said in a post on his Twitter account on Sunday.

The time is ripe for all those who love Islam and Afghanistan to end fratricide and unite to tighten the noose around the stateless Daesh terrorists, the minister added.

At least 68 people, mostly schoolgirls, lost their lives in explosions caused by a car bomb and mortar shells targeting a school in the Shia majority neighborhood of Dasht-e-Barchi in western Kabul on Saturday.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said the Taliban militant group was responsible. The Taliban, however, did not claim responsibility for the blast. According to some media reports, the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack hours later.

Targeting innocent children work of brutal cowards: Iran judiciary chief  

Iran's Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raeisi also expressed sympathy with the Afghan people on Sunday.

In a message, Raeisi expressed his condolences to the “brave and resilient people” of Afghanistan over the act of terror in Kabul and the martyrdom and injury of dozens of schoolgirls.

The heartbreaking images of the incident, he said, hurt the feelings of “every conscientious human being.”

Raeisi also stated that targeting innocent children and adolescents during the holy month of Ramadan is the work of brutal cowards.

“The non-stop fight against terrorism and occupation is the sole way to save regional nations from this deplorable situation,” the judiciary chief said.

Consensus key to peace establishment in Afghanistan: Iranian diplomat

Iran's Special Representative for Afghan Affairs Mohammad Ebrahim Taherian censured the “brutal crime and terrorist attack” in Afghanistan's capital, saying that peace and security could be established in Afghanistan only through consensus among all Afghan groups.

He expressed hope that war and conflicts would end in Afghanistan as soon as possible “so that the Muslim Ummah and the Afghan people will not witness such incidents and tragedies in the [holy] month of Ramadan.”

The violent attack came a week after the United States and its NATO allies began pulling their troops and military hardware out of Afghanistan.

US President Joe Biden has said the drawdown of forces would have been completed by September 11.

The Taliban have issued a warning, pledging to attack US troops if they failed to withdraw as scheduled.

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