Rushdie attack a 'wake-up call' for West, says Rishi Sunak, bats for ban on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard

The India-born author, who went into hiding after Iran released a fatwa urging Muslims to kill him over his novel 'The Satanic Verses' (1988) was stabbed in the neck and abdomen at a literary event in New York on Friday.

TN National Desk

Updated Aug 14, 2022, 11:51 IST

Author Salman Rushdie stabbed in neck on stage in New York

Salman Rushdie was attacked as he was about to give a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in New York on Friday

Photo : AP

Former chancellor and one of the two candidates in running to become Britain's next prime minister, Rishi Sunak termed the brutal attack on author Salman Rushdie a 'wake-up call' to the West over Iran. The India-born author, who went into hiding after Iran released a fatwa urging Muslims to kill him over his novel 'The Satanic Verses' (1988) was stabbed in the neck and abdomen at a literary event in New York on Friday.

"The brutal stabbing of Salman Rushdie should be a wake-up call for the West, and Iran’s reaction to the attack strengthens the case for proscribing the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), " Sunak said, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

Notably, the IRGC controls Iran's armed and intelligence forces. Sunak commented on the talks between Iran and the West to revive a nuclear deal and stressed the need for a 'strengthened deal and much tougher sanctions.'

"We urgently need a new, strengthened deal and much tougher sanctions, and if we can’t get results then we have to start asking whether the JCPOA is at a dead end," he said.

The 75-year-old author was put on a ventilator in the hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania and was not able to speak following the brutal attack. His condition improved, however by Saturday morning and he was taken off the ventilator, informed Rushdie's agent, Andrew Wylie.

After already having gone under hours of surgery, Rushdie is likely to lose one eye, Wylie noted. The nerves in one of the novelist's arms were severed and his liver was damaged in the vicious attack.

On the other hand, the attacker, identified as 24-year-old Hadi Matar from New Jersey pleaded not guilty to attempted murder in the second degree and other charges in a New York court on Saturday. He was arraigned in centralised arraignment on Saturday and was remanded without bail at Chautauqua County Jail.

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