U.S. Denies Blame in Killing of Iranian Scientist
The United States on Wednesday denied that it was to blame for the killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist by a car bomb, after Tehran said Washington and Israel were responsible for the attack.
"The United States had absolutely nothing to do with this. We strongly condemn all acts of violence, including acts of violence like this," said National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor.
The State Department meanwhile said it condemned "any assassination or attack on an innocent person and we express our sympathies to the family."
When asked to comment on claims the United States and Israel were behind the scientist's death, spokeswoman Victoria Nuland replied: "I don't have any information to share one way or another on that."
The death of the scientist, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, deputy director at Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment facility, deepened a war of words between Washington and Tehran already raging over a nuclear showdown and maritime tensions.
Iranian officials noted the assassination method -- two men on a motorbike attaching a magnetic bomb to the target's vehicle -- was similar to that used in the killings of three other scientists over the past two years.
Roshan, 32, died immediately in the blast outside a university campus in east Tehran. His driver and bodyguard also later died of his wounds, the Fars and ILNA news agencies reported. A third occupant of the Peugeot 405 was wounded and in hospital.
The scientist was specialized in making polymeric membranes to separate gas. Iran uses a gas separation method to enrich its uranium.
In Israel, a senior official said he was unaware who carried out what he called an act of "revenge."
"I don't know who took revenge on the Iranian scientist, but I am definitely not shedding a tear," military spokesman Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai wrote on his official Facebook page.
Three other Iranian scientists were killed in 2010 and 2011 when their cars blew up in similar circumstances. At least two of the scientists had also been working on nuclear activities.
Those attacks were viewed by Iranian officials as assassination operations carried out by Israel's Mossad intelligence service, possibly with help from U.S. counterparts.
Western nations, the United States at the fore, are steadily ratcheting up sanctions on Iran with the aim of fracturing its oil-dependent economy.
Iran has responded by saying it could easily close the Strait of Hormuz -- a chokepoint for 20 percent of the world's oil at the entrance to the Gulf -- if it is attacked or if sanctions halt its petroleum exports.
U.S.-Iranian tensions have also worsened following an Iranian court's death sentence this week on an American-Iranian former Marine it found guilty of spying for the CIA, and Iran's capture last month of what it said was a CIA drone.
Source: Agence France Presse
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