Rishi Sunak calls for sanctions on Iran over stabbing of Salman Rushdie, says attack is ‘wake-up call for West’

RISHI Sunak has called for Iran to be sanctioned after the brutal stabbing of Salman Rushdie.

The potential future prime minister believes the attack should be a “wake-up call for the West” and has warned Britain “must keep our eyes on the ball”.

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The 75-year-old author suffered horrific injuries when he was stabbed up to 15 times in front of a horrified crowd at New York’s Chautauqua Institution.

Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses has been banned in Iran since 1988 because it is considered by many Muslims to be offensive to Islam.

He spent about 10 years under police protection in the UK, living in hiding after the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s execution.

Rushdie has been hospitalized after being stabbed multiple times in New York yesterday after years of receiving death threats over his book.

The Indian-born writer suffered a damaged liver, severed nerves in an arm and an eye.

He was on a ventilator and unable to speak, his agent Andrew Wylie said Friday night. Rushdie will likely lose the injured eye.

Mr Sunak told The Telegraph that Britain should take action against Iran now.

He said, “The situation in Iran is extremely serious and bearable [Vladimir] Putin, we can’t take our eyes off the ball.”

He warned of possible attempts to revive the Iran nuclear deal, adding: “A nuclear-armed Iran would pose an existential threat to our ally Israel and indeed endanger all of Europe with ballistic missiles.”

“We desperately need a new, strengthened agreement and much tougher sanctions, and if we can’t get results, we have to ask ourselves if the JCPOA is at an impasse.

“The brutal stabbing of Salman Rushdie should be a wake-up call for the West, and Iran’s response to the attack reinforces the case for a ban on the IRGC.”

Hadi Matar, 24, was charged in court today with attempted murder and assault while Rushdie remained in hospital.

An attorney for Matar filed a plea of ​​not guilty on his behalf during an impeachment hearing in New York today.

US law enforcement last night unveiled an initial investigation suggesting Matar sympathizes with the Iranian regime and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the New York Post reported.

He was born in the US to Lebanese parents who emigrated from Yaroun, a border village in southern Lebanon, Mayor Ali Tehfe said.

A state police officer and a county sheriff’s deputy were assigned to attend Rushdie’s presentation, and police confirmed that the officer caught the man.

But after the attack, some longtime visitors to the center questioned why there wasn’t tightened security for the event, given the more than $3 million bounty on his head for anyone who killed him.

While Rushdie remains terminally ill in hospital, the Iranian dictatorship has hailed the horror attack – branding him an “apostate” and a “heretic” while praising his attacker for “snapping the neck of the enemy of God with a knife”.