Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani said those who lost their loved ones in the disaster were currently grappling with “two types of debris,” one left from the building collapse and the other caused by the “politically bankrupt” elements loyal to the ex-Pahlavi regime.
Shamkhani was speaking during a ceremony joined by Iranians originally from Khuzestan Province residing in Tehran. The senior official was himself born in Khuzestan and played a key role as a commander in the province’s defense campaign against the invading Iraqi military in the 1980s war.
“While authorities are doing their utmost to remove the physical debris and investigating the technical aspects that led to the incident, the elements who are creating [psychological] rubble, are at work to fabricate and spread maximum rumors in order to disturb public opinion,” he warned.
Shamkhani said monarchists, members of the anti-Iran Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist organization, and separatists had entered the scene to fuel the psychological warfare using cyber space and satellite channels as a propaganda tool.
However, he said, today’s Abadan is the same city that successfully broke a siege imposed on it by the army of ex-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the 1980s war, and its “brave and patient people will overcome the hardships and problems with the same spirit.”
