Iran and Syria joined an unbroken chorus of condemnation, as did the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and Lebanon’s Hizbullah. “The use of violence to achieve aims is condemned,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said. Syrian President Bashar Assad, in a message to Prime Minister Tony Blair, condemned “these detested acts.” Hamas said that there could be no justification for the London bombings. “Targeting civilians in their transport means and lives is denounced and rejected,” Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy chief of the group’s political bureau, told Reuters in Damascus. A Hizbullah statement on the blasts denounced such attacks on civilians, citing humanitarian, moral and religious grounds.

Daily Star, 8 July 2005