Rushdie attack is evidence of Iran’s brutality, Israel warns

The attack on Sir Salman Rushdie is further evidence of Iran’s “brutality and extremism”, Israeli officials said last week in statements condemning last week’s stabbing.

The British-Indian author is now off a ventilator and said to be “on the road to recovery” after being stabbed multiple times on stage during an event in New York state.

Prime Minister Yair Lapid said it was “an attack on our freedoms and values. It is the result of decades of incitement led by the extremist regime in Tehran.

“On behalf of the people of Israel, we wish him a full and speedy recovery.”

Idan Roll, who serves as Lapid’s deputy foreign minister, added in a tweet: “Yesterday’s shocking attack on Salman Rushdie is further evidence of the brutality & extremism of the Iranian regime, which has gone after and persecuted freethinkers everywhere for decades.”

Iran denied it was involved in the attack on the 75-year-old, who has faced threats since his novel The Satanic Verses became the subject of an Islamic edit – a fatwa – on the basis that the book’s depiction of the Prophet Muhammad is blasphemous.

Sir Salman has suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm, according to his agent. He is reportedly likely to lose the eye.

The alleged assailant, 24-year-old Hadi Matar, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault.

He was born in the town of Yaroun in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel.

It is a region which has seen clashes between the IDF and forces loyal to Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shia group.