Leader stresses punishing those behind Abadan tragedy

Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution ordered on Thursday to accelerate the rescue operations in the building collapse in Abadan.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s message and order was read out on Thursday evening in an extraordinary meeting in the presence of the President Raeisi on the subject of reviewing the reports of the delegations to Abadan and assessing the latest measures taken in that regard. The text of the message is as following:

In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful

Regarding the regrettable incident in Abadan, the rescue process must be accelerated and all capacities should be used to reduce the number of casualties. This is of prime importance right now. Furthermore, all of government officials in the country, in cooperation with the Judiciary Branch, have the responsibility of prosecuting and punishing the culprits in such a way as to serve as an example. In addition, extensive efforts must be made to prevent the recurrence of such incidents in all parts of the country.

I would deem it as necessary to thank the government officials for their hard work in recent days and I request their serious attention and follow-up on that case. I also wish to express my condolences to the families of the victims of the tragedy.

Sayyid Ali Khamenei