Monday 15 August 2022 03:40 AM Iran state media hardliners say Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo are next after ... trends now
Rushdie (pictured in Los Angeles in 2013) has now been taken off a ventilator and can speak. There had been fears he would be left unable to talk after the attack last week
Iran's state media has warned Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo that they are next in line, following the stabbing on Friday of Sir Salman Rushdie.
The Kayhan newspaper, whose editor is personally chosen by Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared in a front page story published on Sunday that after Rushdie 'it is now the turn of Trump and Pompeo'.
The editorial stated, according to The Daily Telegraph: 'God has taken his revenge on Rushdie. The attack on him shows it is not a difficult job to take similar revenge on Trump and Pompeo and from now on they will feel more in danger for their lives.'
Rushdie, a 75-year-old British-American novelist, was speaking on stage at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York when 24-year-old Hadi Matar rushed onto the platform and stabbed Rushdie up to ten times.
Matar, born in the US to Lebanese parents, was quickly detained and charged with attempted murder. His mother told DailyMail.com he became withdrawn after visiting Lebanon in 2018, but she had no idea he was radicalized, and she now disowned him.
The threats against the former president and his former secretary of state are not new.
Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo were both threatened by Iranian state media on Sunday
Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is pictured on June 4. Khamenei tightly controls Kayhan newspaper, which on Sunday threatened Trump and Pompeo
Newly released mugshots show suspected knifeman Hadi Matar as he was detained in New York
In January, on the second anniversary of the killing of Qassim Soleimani, the powerful commander of the Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force, Iran's president Ebrahim Raisi publicly vowed to seek revenge against the pair.
A U.S. airstrike killed Soleimani, 62, and others as they traveled from Baghdad's international airport on January 2, 2020.
The Pentagon said Trump ordered the U.S. military to take 'decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing' the high-profile general.
Raisi declared in January this year: 'If the conditions for a fair trial of Mr Trump and Mr Pompeo and other criminals become available, they will be charged for committing this heinous crime and will face the consequence of their criminal actions.
'However, let there be no doubt that I say here to all American statesmen that the hand of revenge will eventually come out of the sleeve of our nation.'
Anthony Blinken, Pompeo's successor as secretary of state, told Congress in April that Iran's attempts to assassinate Pompeo 'are real and ongoing'.
On Wednesday, the United States charged a member of the Revolutionary Guard with plotting to murder John Bolton, a national security adviser to Trump.
The Justice Department alleged that Shahram Poursafi, also known as Mehdi Rezayi, 45, of Tehran, was likely motivated to kill Bolton in retaliation for the death of Soleimani.
Pompeo was the second target, according to reports.
Poursafi remains at large.
The author – who has had an Iranian death sentence hanging over him since 1989 after writing The Satanic Verses – was left with damage to his liver and severed nerves in one arm, and his agent has said he could lose his sight in one eye.
On Sunday morning Rushdie's son, Zafar, 42, said his father's condition remains 'critical', despite doctors being able to take him off a ventilator.
He was able to speak a few words, Zafar said, and 'his usual feisty and defiant sense of humor remain intact'.
Salman Rushdie (left) stands with eldest son Zafar (right) at an event in London in June 2007
Rushdie told a German magazine earlier this month that the fatwa against him no longer scared him. Here bystanders and staff tend to Mr Rushdie on stage after the attack
Rushdie is being held at UPMC Hamot Surgery Center in Erie, Pennsylvania (pictured yesterday). Son Zafar said the family has come together at their father's bedside
Zafar wrote this afternoon: 'His usual feisty and defiant sense of humour remains intact'
London-based PR agent Zafar wrote: 'My father remains in critical condition in hospital.
'We are extremely relieved that yesterday he was taken off the ventilator and additional oxygen and he was able to say a few words.
'Though his life changing injuries are severe, his usual feisty and defiant sense of humour remains intact.
'We are so grateful to all the audience members who bravely leapt to his defence and administered first aid along with the police and doctors who have cared for him and for the outpouring of love and support from around the world.
'We ask for continued patience and privacy as the family come together at his bedside.'
Zafar's moving statement came moments before new mugshots taken at Chautauqua County Jail in Mayville, New York were published.
An author who was at the event wrote about the horrifying moment in an op ed published by CNN.
'A man leaps onstage, hate on two feet, storming Rushdie with lightning speed,' wrote Lydia Strohl.
'The author rises and steps back to evade him, but his black suit and polished shoes are unprepared for the youth in trainers, head wrapped like a ninja, a cyclone of anonymous fury.'
It was also revealed that the celebrated author is on the 'road to recovery' and is expected to survive the attack.
Zafar posted a defiant message after the attack, referencing his father's habit of speaking out
Salman Rushdie was attacked before he was due to give a talk to an audience in New York state. Here he is pictured on stage moments before the attack
The acclaimed author was rushed to hospital after being stabbed '10-15 times' while on stage. Here he is pictured being taken to a air ambulance
Agent Andrew Wylie stated on Sunday afternoon: 'It will be long; the injuries are severe, but his condition is headed in the right direction.'
And Rushdie is now able to 'talk and joke', a friend who visited him confirmed this morning.
The Indian-born writer has lived under the threat of violence since 1989, when Iran's then Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa, or decree, declaring The Satanic Verses to be blasphemous and urging Muslims to kill him.
A judge ordered that Matar be held without bail after District Attorney Jason Schmidt said the suspect had purposely put himself in position to harm the author.
'This was a targeted, unprovoked, pre-planned attack on Mr Rushdie,' Mr Schmidt said.
Prosecutors said he had bought an advance pass to the lecture and arrived a day early with a fake ID.
He is believed to have lived with his mother and two sisters in Fairview, New Jersey, where neighbours described them as a 'normal, very nice, very American family'.
Matar is said to be a devout Muslim and loner, but friends said he had not spoken of Iran or Rushdie. The suspected assailant was wrestled to the ground after running on the stage and stabbing the author repeatedly.
Henry Reese, who was to lead an on-stage discussion with Rushdie, and was also hurt, said at first he thought the attack was a 'bad prank' as it 'didn't have any sense of reality'.
Meanwhile Rushdie's comments to a German magazine made two weeks ago but published in the wake of his stabbing reveal the author's relentless optimism in the wake of 'scary times'.
Rushdie said death