UK must sanction Iran over Salman Rushdie stabbing: Rishi Sunak

London: UK Prime Minister hopeful and Conservative party leadership contender Rishi Sunak has called for sanctions on Iran over the stabbing of author Salman Rushdie in the US.
Rushdie, who faced death threats over his book ‘The Satanic Verses’, was stabbed on stage in Western New York state on Friday. A number of world leaders including US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the incident.
“If the attack on Salman Rushdie is an operation by Iran, it shows our power. …If the attacker has done it under the influence of Iran, it proves the success of our Islamic revolution,” Rishi was quoted as saying by The Telegraph newspaper.
Rushdie, 75, hogged the limelight with his novel ‘Midnight’s Children’ in 1981. The India-born author won Booker Prize for the novel which was also adapted for the stage.
But his 1988 book ‘The Satanic Verses’ led to a fatwa, a religious decree, by the then Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The threat forced him into hiding for several years.
While pointing to the serious situation in Iran, Sunak warned about the potential futility of attempts to revive the Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)