SOILDERS OF GOD CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY FOR IRAN'S SUICIDE BLAST, KILLING 35

Iran has promised a swift and crushing response to a suicide attack in the country's Sistan-Baluchestan province that killed at least 35 people, including 11 Revolutionary Guards commanders.

• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, said on Sunday that those behind the bombing in the city of Pisheen would be "seriously dealt with".
• According to Iranian state media, a Sunni group called Jundallah, or Soldiers of God, claimed responsibility for the attack.
• But Tehran has also indicated it believes foreign elements were involved in the attack, the deadliest in Iran in recent years.
• "We consider the recent terrorist attack to be the result of US action. This is the sign of America's animosity against our country," Ali Larijani, Iran's parliamentary speaker, said.
• Mohammad Marandi, an assistant professor at the University of Tehran, told Al Jazeera the attack could further damage Iran's relations with the US.
• "I think the greatest blow [from this attack] is to any Iranian trust with regards to the Americans," he told Al Jazeera.
• "On the one hand, the Americans are talking about rapprochement and building a new future, yet at the same time we see the Americans supporting groups in [Iran's] Kurdish regions as well as in Sistan-Baluchestan."
• But Washington has denied involvement with the group, which it has labelled as a "terrorist" organisation, and condemned the attack.
• Tehran has also suggested that Saudi Arabia and Britain have supported Jundallah to stir up trouble in the border area and have linked the group to al-Qaeda.
• Majid Tafreshi, an Iranian researcher at University College London who specialises in ethnic and religious minorities, said there were clues as to the involvement of Western nations.