Iran's Revolutionary Guards today said the 1989 decree sentencing British author Salman Rushdie to death still stands and called on Iran's leadership to act on it.
A statement from the group, issued before the anniversary of the fatwa (religious decree) on February 14th, follows another one yesterday from the conservative-led Islamic Propaganda Organisation (IPO).
The military unit said: "We ask the leaders of the Islamic republic to use diplomatic means to support the rights of Muslims and of the world's disenfranchised people and assure that the historical decree of the imam not be forgotten."
That was a reference to the founder of the Islamic regime, Iran's late Ayatollah Khomeini, who issued the fatwa calling for the killing of Mr Rushie over alleged blasphemy against Islam in the novel "The Satanic Verses."
The IPO said yesterday: "This fatwa is still valid and Muslims across the world are obliged to apply it."
AFP