Assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists reflect the enemies’ desperation in their attempts to halt Iran’s scientific and technological progress.”
Hezbollah’s representative in Iran Abdullah Safi al-Din
Hezbollah’s representative in Iran Abdullah Safi al-Din describes the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists as a sign of the enemies’ “desperation and weakness” in their efforts to impede Iran’s scientific and technological progress.
Speaking at a ceremony in Iran’s northeastern city of Mashhad on Tuesday, Safi al-Din said the enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the arrogant powers, unable to confront Iran militarily, resort to targeted killings of Iranian scientists in their attempts to halt the scientific advancement of the Iranian nation.
He added that such conspiracies, like earlier plots, are doomed to fail and they will not get the bullying powers anywhere.
On July 23, 2011 unidentified gunmen killed Iranian nuclear scientist Darioush Rezaeinejad outside his house in Tehran.
Rezaeinejad and his wife were on their way to their child’s kindergarten when they were approached by two men on a motorbike. The gunmen called him by name and shot Rezaeinejad, 35, in the neck when he turned around.
Rezaeinejad was not the first Iranian nuclear scientist targeted by a terrorist attack.
Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was targeted on January 11, when an unknown motorcyclist attached a magnetic bomb to his car near a college building of the Allameh Tabatabaei University in northern Tehran.
He was immediately killed and his driver, who sustained serious injuries, died a few hours later in hospital.
In November, 2010, Majid Shahriari, another scientist, was killed in a terrorist attack and Dr. Fereydoun Abbasi, the current head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, was injured in an assassination attempt.
Professor Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, another scholar at Tehran University, was also assassinated by a booby-trapped motorbike in the Iranian capital in January 2010.
—Agencies