His statement was broadcast on Iranian television:

"In recent years, the pressure on Iraqi Shi'is has been redoubled and they have been living under the worst possible conditions. In recent years, the enemies of Islam and religious scholarship have not refrained from committing any crime in order to destroy that great Islamic centre.

They have demonstrated their hostility to religion, religious scholarship and awareness by causing devastation and destruction and massacring and martyring religious scholars and thinkers such as the eminent martyr Sayyed Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and the honourable martyrs Ayatollahs Gharavi and Borujerdi as well as other prominent religious scholars.

Now, the enmities, devastation, torture and pressure have been intensified. Undoubtedly, one cannot ignore the Iraqi Government's responsibility for all those events and it is the Iraqi Government which should answer to world public opinion."