Iran Arrests Suspects Over Nuclear Scientist Assassination - UPDATE

Iran’s Intelligence Minister Haidar Moslehi said today in Tehran that the security forces have made “a number of arrests” in the assassination of the Iranian nuclear scientist Majid Shahriari. Another nuclear scientist, Freidoun Abbasi, was also targeted but survived the assassination attempt. Moslehi accused the Israeli Mossad, MI6 and the CIA of involvements in the attacks.

Moslehi did not provide any details on the arrests, the identity of the detainees, or their possible links to the foreign intelligence agencies. It was not immediately clear if the announcement was an attempt by the government to calm down the public outrage over the attacks, or the authorities had actually identified and detained the attackers.

UPDATE – Iran’s deputy chief of the Judiciary, Ebrahim Raisi, told the prayers at the Friday Prayer in Tehran that the Israeli Mossad with the help of local nationals has carried out the attacks on the nuclear scientists. He promised that the perpetuators would be arrested and brought to justice. Oddly, he did not mention, or was unaware of, that the country’s intelligence minister had already announced the arrest of the suspects in the attacks.

Funeral Services in Tehran for the Nuclear Scientist

The body of Dr. Majid Shahriari, the nuclear scientist killed on Monday’s terrorist attacks in Tehran, was carried in a huge procession today from the Shahid Beheshti University campus, where he was a professor of nuclear physics, to Tehran’s Imamzadeh Saleh cemetery.

The director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Ali Akbar Salehi, led high-level government and academic delegations in today’s services.

Shahriari was a top scientist and senior manager in Iran’s nuclear projects. He was reportedly killed when an explosive charge placed in his car was detonated by remote control when he and his wife climbed into the vehicle. His wife was injured. Another nuclear scientist, Dr. Fereidoun Abbasi, was also targeted and injured in a similar attack in another part of the city on the same day. Abbasi’s wife was also with him at the time and was injured as well. It was earlier reported that assailants on motorcycles attached magnetized bombs to their cars.

The Israeli Mossad is accused to be behind the assassination. The Mossad has carried out similar operations on foreign soil over the decades.

Shahriari’s assassination is believed to be a major blow to Iran’s nuclear program. He had not only brought the know-how but operational expertise to the program that would be tough to replace.

Photo: Mehr News Agency

Nuclear Scientists Killed and Wounded – Iran Accuses Israel and the West

Iran has accused Israel and the West of being behind a pair of bomb attacks that killed one nuclear scientist and wounded another on the streets of Tehran on Monday.

Assailants on motorcycles attached magnetized bombs to the cars of the two nuclear scientists as they were driving in separate parts of the Iranian capital.

Majid Shahriari, the scientist killed in the attacks, was involved in a major project with the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said the AEOI director. Mr. Shahriari was a professor of physics at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran.

The wounded scientist, Fereidoun Abbasi, was on the list of 2007 UN sanctions resolution for his work on Iranian nuclear programs. Mr. Abbasi is also a physics professor at Shahid Beheshti University.

"Undoubtedly, the hand of the Zionist regime and Western governments is involved in the assassination," the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said after the attacks.

The attackers have not been yet apprehended or identified and Ahmadinejad did not provide any details on their links to Israel and the West.

Ahmadinejad also accused the West of creating problems for the country’s uranium enrichment program.

"They managed to create problems for a limited number of our centrifuges through the software installed on electronic parts. But this (virus) was discovered and the problem was resolved," Ahmadinejad told reporters.

Photos: Shahr.ir/ Donya-e Eqtesad