Iran nuclear scientists targeted in Tehran blasts
The Iranian government has accused the US and Israel of plotting what they deemed "terrorist attacks," which killed one Iran nuclear scientist and wounded another.
Emergency services are seen near a car following the detonation of a planted bomb in Tehran Nov. 29. Two car bomb blasts killed one Iranian nuclear scientist and wounded another in Tehran on Monday, Iran's al-Alam Arabic language television reported.
Fars News/Handout/Reuters
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Two bomb blasts in the Iranian capital Monday killed a top nuclear scientist and wounded another.
State-controlled media immediately accused the US and Israel of being behind the assassination, which came days before Iran聽is scheduled to discuss its nuclear program with international officials. And on Sunday a trove of US embassy cables revealed by WikiLeaks revealed that multiple Arab countries have urged the US to bomb Iran鈥檚 nuclear facilities. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful, while many Western nations accuse Tehran of using the program to develop nuclear weapons.
State media reported that 聽by unidentified men on motorcycles, then detonated from a distance, reports Agence France-Presse. The scientist killed was Majid Shahriari, a professor in the nuclear engineering department at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran. Fereydoon Abbasi, also a professor at the university who is involved in nuclear research at the Defense Ministry, was wounded.
The wives of both men and one other person were wounded in the attacks, which took place in two separate locations. The Tehran Times called the bombs
AFP reports that Abbasi was a member of the Revolutionary Guard and "one of the few specialists who can separate isotopes," according to a state news website.
Shahriari worked with Iran鈥檚 Atomic Energy Agency, reports The New York Times. The agency鈥檚 head said he managed one of the organization鈥檚 鈥渕ajor projects.鈥� He also . 鈥淒on鈥檛 play with fire,鈥� he said, according to state media. 鈥淭he patience of the Iranian people has its limits. If our patience runs out, you will suffer the consequences.鈥�
Both men targeted Monday worked with a regional non-nuclear scientific research unit called Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East, or SESAME, reports The New York Times.
Unusually, its nine-member council includes representatives from Israel along with Iran and several other Muslim countries. It was not clear whether the killings of the two Iranian scientists were linked to their association with the organization.
Another scientist involved with SESAME was assassinated in January. Masoud Ali Mohammadi聽was also killed in a bomb attack, which Iranian officials also blamed on the US and Israel. But the AFP reports that Tehran鈥檚 deputy governor said the two attacks Monday were 鈥渄ifferent from previous assassinations.鈥�
On Sunday, the organization WikiLeaks released secret US government communications revealing that Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia, repeatedly 聽before it was 鈥渢oo late.鈥� The Guardian reports that in addition to Saudi King Abdullah, leaders in Bahrain and Jordan called for the US to stop Iran鈥檚 nuclear program by any means. Leaders in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt also referred to Iran as a threat that could bring the region to war.
US Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an 聽Sunday that the US has been considering military options to deal with the Iranian threat. He said he has no doubt that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, but that it鈥檚 important to , reports Politico.