Iran terms assassination of fourth nuclear scientist ‘work of the Zionists’
Special to WorldTribune.com
NICOSIA — Western intelligence agencies continue to target Iran’s
nuclear sector.
On Jan. 11, Iran reported the assassination of another senior nuclear
scientist, an attack blamed on Israel. Officials said two men on a motorcycle
attached magnetic bombs to the car of a director at the Iranian uranium
enrichment facility at Natanz, the largest in the country.
Security forces guard the site of the blast that killed Iranian nuclear scientist Mustafa Ahmedi Rushan in Teheran on Jan. 11. /AP/Sajjad Safari
“The bomb was a magnetic, the same as those previously used for the assassination of [other] scientists, and is the work of the Zionists,” Teheran deputy Gov. Safarali Baratloo said.
This marked at least the fourth such attack on Iranian nuclear
scientists since 2010. So far, four scientists have been killed and a fifth, who later became head of Iran’s nuclear program, was injured.
“The United States had absolutely nothing to do with this,” U.S.
National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said.
The latest target was identified as Mustafa Ahmedi Rushan, a department head at Natanz, which contains more than 8,000 centrifuges. Rushan, 32, was inside a vehicle along with two others when it exploded in northern Teheran
during morning rush hour. The two passengers were reported to have been injured.
Iran’s state-owned Fars news agency said Rushan was involved in a
project to produce polymeric membranes used to separate gas. For several
hours, the Teheran regime concealed Rushan’s employment at Natanz,
identifying him merely as a professor at Tabtabaei University.
Officials said Britain, Israel and the United States appeared to have
joined in an assassination campaign of key Iranian nuclear scientists. One
target was identified as Darioush Rezaeinejad, said to have been a staffer
in Iran’s nuclear weapons program, including the development of high-voltage
switches.
The lone survivor of the attacks was identified as Fereidoun Abbasi,
injured in a 2010 bombing. Within days of the attack, Abbasi was appointed
director of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization.
Israel has not confirmed participation in these attacks. But hours
before the bombing, Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz told a
parliamentary committee that there could be setbacks in Iran’s nuclear
weapons program.
“The confluence of efforts to advance the nuclear program as well as
internal leadership changes have sustained international pressure and
unnatural events,” Gantz said on Jan. 10.
Gantz’s remarks, which were not clarified, were issued as details
emerged of Israeli intelligence efforts in Iran. On Jan. 10, the French
daily Le Figaro reported that Israel employed Iranian Kurds based in
northern Iraq for intelligence operations in Teheran and other Iranian
cities. Le Figaro said the focus of the operations was to assassinate
Iranian nuclear scientists.
Iranian parliamentarian Mohammed Kosari said one suspect in the
assassinations confessed that he had received $120,000 from Israel’s Mossad
before his mission. Majid Fashi was charged with killing Iranian nuclear
scientist Majid Shahriari in 2010.
“In this case, the footprints of the Zionists and the world arrogance
are seen too,” Kosari, referring to Western intelligence agencies, said.
