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Iran Accuses U.S., Israel Of Involvement In Tehran Bomb Attack
RTTNews
Iranian state media on Tuesday accused the United States and Israel of involvement in a bomb attack in the Iranian capital that killed a professor of nuclear physics at Tehran University.
Earlier in the day, Masoud
Mohammadi, a professor of nuclear physics at Tehran University, was killed in a bomb explosion near his home in Qeytariyeh district, north of the capital. Local reports indicated that Mohammadi, known as a "devoted
revolutionary professor," was killed by a remote-controlled bomb hidden in a motorcycle parked near his home.
Soon after Tuesday's explosion, police sealed of the area and launched an investigation into the attack.
In the meantime, Iran's state-owned Press TV reported quoting officials said Mohammadi was "assassinated in a terrorist act by counter-revolutionary elements."
However, a later report by state broadcaster Irib
quoted Iran's foreign ministry spokesman as saying that "in the initial investigation, signs of the triangle of wickedness by the Zionist regime, America and their hired agents, are visible in the terrorist act".
In a similar report, state-run Press TV quoted police officials at the scene of the attack as saying that the bomb, as well as the system used to detonate it had been related to a number of foreign intelligence agencies,
particularly Israel's Mossad.
Meanwhile, the U.S. dismissed the Iranian foreign ministry allegation that U.S. and Israeli "mercenaries"were behind the bomb plot, with State Department spokesman Mark Toner
describing the Iranian claim as "absurd."
Though Iranian officials claimed after the explosion that Mohammadi was not a political figure, several reports indicated that his name figured in the list of academics
supporting opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi ahead of the disputed 2009 presidential election.
Earlier, Iranian universities had witnessed a series of demonstrations protesting the disputed re-election of President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June presidential elections. Despite the mass protests across the country alleging widespread vote rigging and fraud in the elections, Ahmadinejad took oath of office before the Parliament on August 5.
Following Ahmadinejad's return to office, the Iranian authorities came down hard on the post election protests and arrested hundreds of opposition activists. Opposition accounts indicate that over 45 people were killed
in the crack down on opposition rallies and protest marches.
The latest developments come as Iran is facing a threat of UN sanctions over its refusal to accept a UN-proposed nuclear deal aimed at easing international
concerns over Teheran's nuclear program. Following its refusal to accept the deal, Western nations have threatened to impose further sanctions on Tehran over its continued defiance.
Though Iran says its nuclear program
is intended for peaceful civilian power generation purposes only, the West believes Teheran's claims are just a cover-up for its nuclear weapon ambitions. Iran has already survived three sets of sanctions imposed on it by the
UN Security Council following refusal to halt its nuclear development work.
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