DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – An Iranian government official is denying that Tehran was involved in the assault on author Salman Rushdie. The remarks were the country’s first public comments on the attack. Nasser Kanaani, the spokesman of Iran’s Foreign Ministry, made the remarks in a briefing to journalists on Monday. He said that Iran does “not consider that anyone deserves blame and accusations except him and his supporters,” speaking of Rushdie. The spokesman also said that “nobody has right to accuse Iran in this regard.” Iran has denied carrying out other operations abroad targeting dissidents in the years since its 1979 Islamic Revolution, despite prosecutors and Western governments attributing such attacks back to Tehran.