Sorrow and deja-vu: Mideast reacts to deadly Nice attack

At least 84 were killed and scores injured, including 50 children after an assailant drove a lorry into crowds celebrating Bastille Day along the main boulevard in Nice.

The six Gulf Arab states issued a joint statement to "strongly" condemn the "terrorist" act.

"The Gulf Cooperation Council states stand in solidarity with the French republic following this cowardly criminal incident whose perpetrators have been stripped of all moral and human values," the bloc's secretary general, Abdullatif al-Zayani, said.

Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, which enjoys close ties with Paris, issued its own statement condemning the "heinous terrorist" act, adding that it stands in "solidarity" with France and will "cooperate with it in confronting terrorist acts in all their forms."

United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan said "This heinous terrorist crime makes it imperative for all to work decisively and without hesitation to counter terrorism in all its forms and manifestations."

Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE are members of a US-led coalition which has carried out an air war against Islamic State group in Syria, alongside France.

Arab and Muslim leaders and ordinary citizens had strong words of condemnation against the terror attack that struck Nice Thursday night

The Islamic Republic of Iran condemned the violence as a "criminal terrorist attack" in a foreign ministry statement.

Terrorism is "an ominous phenomenon, which could not be dealt with except through international cooperation and consensus," the statement reported by Press TV said.

Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, whose country has been hit repeatedly by deadly attacks, said "We deeply share the pain of the French people. Turkey is in full solidarity with France in the fight against terrorism."

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi denounced "in the strongest terms the vile terrorist attack," his office said.

Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit condemned the "craven terrorist attack," his spokesman said.

Meanwhile Tunisia said the attacker, who police said held joint French-Tunisian citizenship, had committed an act of “extreme cowardice" and expressed solidarity with France against the "scourge of terrorism."

Leading Muslim clerics also joined in to denounce the deadly attack.

Sunni Islam's leading centre of learning, al-Azhar, said the "vile terrorist" attack contradicted Islam and called for "uniting efforts to defeat terrorism and ride the world of its evil."

Prominent Egyptian Muslim cleric Shawki Allam condemned the assailant as an "extremist."

"People who commit such ugly crimes are corrupt of the earth, and follow in the footsteps of Satan... and are cursed in this life and in the hereafter."

Meanwhile Muslims and Arabs took to social media to denounce the attack using Arabic hashtag #Nice_Attack.