Iranian President Hassan Rouhani accused Western governments of encouraging Islamophobia, after the attacks on two mosques in New Zealand that killed 49 worshippers and wounded dozens.
In a statement carried by the official government website on Friday, Rouhani said the shootings showed the need for "all out confrontation against...the Islamophobia pervasive in the West which is unfortunately encouraged by some Western governments."
Rouhani promised Iran's foreign ministry would "diligently" follow the "arrest and trial of the perpetrators of this heinous act."
"Impunity in Western 'democracies' to promote bigotry leads to this," the tweet read. In another tweet Zarif said that while Iranians were "deeply shocked and saddened", they were not surprised by the "Christchurch terror."