Ladane Nasseri and Ali Sheikholeslami
Bloomberg
January 12, 2010
Iran said U.S. and Israeli spy agencies may have conspired with dissident Iranians to kill a nuclear scientist in a bomb attack today in Tehran.
Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, a professor of nuclear physics, was killed by a remote-controlled device planted on a motorcycle in front of his home in the Qeytarieh neighborhood, state-run Press TV said. The Kingdom Assembly of Iran, a political group that seeks to end Iran’s religious rule, took responsibility for the bombing in a statement, the state-run Fars news agency said.
“Signs of evil by the triangle of the Zionist regime, the U.S. and their mercenaries in Iran can be seen in this terrorist incident,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was cited as saying by Fars. “Such terrorist acts and the elimination of the country’s nuclear scientists will certainly not halt the scientific and technological process.”
The U.S. and its allies accuse Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, while the Persian Gulf country says it wants the technology for peaceful purposes. State media didn’t say whether Ali-Mohammadi was involved in Iran’s nuclear program. The Iran Atomic Energy Organization spokesman, Ali Shirzadian, wasn’t immediately available for comment.
State television identified the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Israel’s Mossad as having possible involvement. Press TV said the killing may be linked to Israel’s opposition to Iran’s nuclear development.
There have been no arrests in the case, Tehran prosecutor- general Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi told the state-run Iranian Students News Agency.
Loyal to Government
The killing of Ali-Mohammadi, who taught at Tehran University, was “a terrorist act by anti-revolutionary elements,” state television said. He was “a revolutionary,” it said, a term used by the government to describe individuals who are loyal to the country’s Shiite Muslim leadership.
Iran has been in political turmoil since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in June, which provoked the biggest street protests since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He denies allegations by opponents that the vote was rigged.
Anti-government demonstrations flared up again last month in Tehran and other major cities, prompting a crackdown by security forces that authorities said had left eight people dead.
