TEHRAN – Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has demanded Pakistan act”decisively against anti-Iranian terrorists” in a phone call with thecountry’s premier, Tehran said, a month after a bloody attack on securityforces.

Iran says a Pakistani suicide bomber was behind the February 13 attack thatkilled 27 Revolutionary Guards in its volatile southeastern province ofSistan-Baluchistan.

A Sunni jihadist group, Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice), which Tehran saysoperates mostly out of bases in neighbouring Pakistan, claimedresponsibility for the blast.

Iran has accused Pakistan’s army and intelligence agency of sheltering thejihadists and summoned the country’s ambassador in the wake of the attack.

Rouhani in the phone conversation Saturday evening with Pakistani PrimeMinister Imran Khan called to maintain good ties and pointed the finger ofblame at Tehran’s traditional regional and international foes.

“We shouldn’t allow decades of friendship and brotherhood between the twocountries be affected by terrorist groupuscules that we both know fromwhere they are being armed and financed,” Rouhani said, according to agovernment statement.

The Iranian president was alluding to the United States and Israel, as wellas Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which it accuses of aidingjihadist groups responsible for attacks from Pakistani soil.

February’s bombing was the latest of numerous attacks on Iran’s securityforces and officials in Sistan-Baluchistan, where the minority SunniBaluchis accuse the authorities of discrimination. – APP/AFP