Khamenei: CIA, Mossad Behind ‘Cowardly Murder’ of Scientist
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Iran's supreme leader has accused the U.S. and Israeli intelligence services of being behind the "abominable" assassination in Tehran this week of a nuclear scientist who was to be buried Friday.
The "cowardly murder" on Wednesday of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a deputy director of Iran's main uranium enrichment plant, was committed "with the planning or support of the intelligence services of the CIA and Mossad," said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In a message of condolence posted on his website, Khamenei said Iran's nuclear program "does not depend on any one person" and "we are going to continue with determination and energy on this path."
His condemnation of the United States and Israel came amid calls in Iran's conservative press for "retaliation" against Israeli political and military officials -- but also a renewed offer for nuclear talks with world powers that collapsed a year ago to resume.
Ali Larijani, the influential speaker of Iran's parliament, said Thursday during a visit to Turkey that his country stood ready for the negotiations with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, plus Germany.
"The negotiations can yield results if they are serious and not a game," he said, according to the official news agency IRNA.
Iran has several times said it is willing to resume those talks, which collapsed a year ago.
But the office of EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who represents the world powers, has said it is still waiting for Tehran to formally respond to a letter she sent in October offering to return to the talks.
Iran is being hit by U.N. and Western sanctions over its nuclear program, as well as what appears to be a covert campaign of sabotage and assassinations, with at least three of its nuclear scientists killed in the past two years.
Iran insists its nuclear program is for exclusively peaceful purposes.
But most Western countries believe it masks a drive to develop nuclear weapons -- a suspicion strengthened though not confirmed by a November report by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Western sanctions have been ramped up since that IAEA report came out.
The European Union is poised, in a January 23 meeting, to follow the United States in imposing extra measures designed to curb Iran's vital oil exports.
A senior U.S. official said a new law signed by U.S. President Barack Obama on December 31 aimed to "close down" Iran's central bank, the main clearing point for petroleum payments.
Obama has said "all options are on the table" in dealing with Iran -- including military action -- though his administration has said it is currently pursuing economic, political and diplomatic means to resolve the impasse.
Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone Thursday to discuss the stand-off.
The United States has strongly denied having anything to do with the Iranian scientist's murder, but Pentagon chief Leon Panetta said Thursday that U.S. officials had "some ideas" about who was behind the assassination.
Israel has largely kept silent about the attack, though a military spokesman, Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai, said on his official Facebook page that "I am definitely not shedding a tear" over Ahmadi Roshan's killing.
Israeli media also highlighted comments just before the attack by the Israeli chief of staff, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, who said 2012 would see "things which happen to them (the Iranians) in an unnatural way."
Iran's government has written a letter demanding U.N. Security Council condemnation of the assassination, which it said was backed by unnamed "foreign quarters.”
Ahmadi Roshan, 32, and his bodyguard/driver were killed after a man on the back of a motorbike sped up to their car, stuck in rush-hour traffic, and slapped a magnetic bomb onto it that directed a deadly blast inside the vehicle. A third occupant in the Peugeot 405 was wounded.
The attack was similar to four others in Tehran over the past two years targeting Iranian scientists, three of which succeeded. In the fourth, the scientist -- who now heads Iran's atomic energy organization -- escaped.
13 January 2012, 08:40
010
I agree with kha*ameni that CIA Mosad killed this thug. I congratulate them both on a job well done and hope for many more to come.
13 January 2012, 13:32
110
@mowaten of iran: "murderers and assassins, but always for the good cause!".... are you talking about your hizballah? I agree
13 January 2012, 13:33
19
a great loss for the powers of evil...... one down twenty more to go
13 January 2012, 14:25
28
Thank you for your input all knowing all seeing Ayatollah dude with the flying carpets, but I think you guys killed him because he believed in science rather than magic.
13 January 2012, 14:30
25
@ Martaddella , yes they are murderers and assassins, but look Iran wants to negotiate with them, so negotiating with terrorists means you are a terrorist as well or you lack some balls. Although i dont Iran i must say i respected it when it was resisting to the West ( which i dont like too much either ), but now it seems its folding to them, all that was appearances to show arabs that they are not like them and superior. At the end only 2 countries can endure a stand off with the US or other West countries, and those are Russia and China. The rest are bullshitters
13 January 2012, 14:35
02
that is unfortunately the only way governments chose to achieve political goals: targeted killings. ALL governments do the same thing, be they democratic or not. "suspicious but not proven" is the motto. this avoids official reprisals from the victim gvt as nothing is proven but only suspected, so the responsible government is clear. it avoids then armed conflicts or wars but nobody is duped;
we cannot blame this or that country from doing this as ALL of them do it!
13 January 2012, 15:37
01
Achieving goals through assasination? Aren't Syria and Hezb the absolute masters of such deeds?
13 January 2012, 22:15
00
@ Martadella, i never said USA wasnt a terrorist state and that it was better than Iran, but they dont go around saying they want to erase people, or burn the iranian flag in the states, or even say they will have a major surprise if they are attacked, like Iran always says, please do not confuse me with other people that follow USA blindly, i think that Iran-Syria-USA-Israel are the real axis of evil in this world.
@ Cookie_Monster, did the lebanese opposition have a choice? when Ashraf el Nass point their guns towards you i dont think you can even argue with them. And who told you its my party ya mokh enta, i find only weak points in all of those parties in Lebanon , be it M14 or M8, i strongly was against M14 negociating with hezbollah when they had the majority, but yes they lacked " balls " and were scared.
13 January 2012, 22:19
00
@ Cookie monster, one other thing you should maybe know, you and Mowaten, be sure that all of this USA, Iran standoff, is a big comedy. USA has been able to scare off arabs, specially Qatar , Emirates and Saudi's , and so those countries bought lots of weapons from the USA for billions of $. The USA did that to compensate the high oil prices. its another way to screw them by letting them think Iran and USA are in bad terms. By the way, if the USA wanted to attack, they have F-22 raptors which are the only planes capable in the world of entering the Iranian skies, because of the Iranian defense missile S-300 which are not up-to-date against those planes yet. But surely Israel with its F16's cannot do anything. Its all a game for them all, and we are arguing for nothing here. Im only trying to show you that evil is ALL around us, not just the USA and Israel, but also close neighbours.
14 January 2012, 13:29
02
Are the investigations done by the same who investigated the bombing fat American wannabe terrorist Mulikhiye in Syria ? Or did Mehdi tell him so?
