TEHRAN, May 21 (MNA) – Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei said on Wednesday the United States had a hand in the April 12 blast in the southwestern city of Shiraz that killed 14 people and wounded 200.

The blast during an evening prayer sermon “was aimed at making academic centers especially seminaries unsafe,” Ejei told reporters on the sidelines of Wednesday’s cabinet session.
“The U.S. is behind many events in Iran and the region with the aim of bringing insecurity. We have proper documentations in this regard,” the minister stated.
Ejei had earlier said 15 Iranians were arrested in connection with the blast and they had also plotted to attack a Russian consulate in northern Iran.
Intelligence Ministry on Saturday accused U.S. agents of arming and training the bombers one of whom was killed in an arrest operation.
Pipelines in the country’s oil-rich south were also among the planned targets, the ministry said in a statement.
“This network that the United States had armed with different terrorist tools such as chemicals, explosive materials, dangerous and poisonous cyanide ... was guided directly by U.S. agents into Iran.”
Confessions of those arrested “show that U.S. agents had told members of this network that their main mission was to spread fear among people in different cities,” added the statement.
Weapons, explosives and maps were among item seized from those arrested, the Intelligence Ministry said.
BA/PA END MN