An Iranian official has denied that his country bears any responsibility for the brutal assault on Salman Rushdie in New York last week—despite its former supreme leader ordering his execution and putting a bounty on his head. At a press briefing Monday, Nasser Kanaani, a spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, said that Rushide and his supporters were culpable for that attack, and that freedom of speech didn’t justify Rushdie’s supposed slights on Islam in his work. “We categorically deny” any link to the suspect, Hadi Matar, detained immediately after the assault, Kanaani said, adding that “​​no one has the right to accuse the Islamic Republic of Iran.” His denial comes after Vice reported Sunday that Matar had contacted Iran’s Revolutionary Guard before the assassination attempt, though there was no evidence that Iran was involved in organizing the attack. In 1989, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini called for Rushdie’s execution over the content of his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, which Khomeini alleged was blasphemous. According to Rushdie’s agent, the novelist is now beginning his “long” road to recovery after suffering stab wounds to his neck, stomach, eye, chest, and thigh in the attack.