Tehran blamed the death of Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a deputy director at the Natanz enrichment facility, on the US and Israel.
Iranian officials decried the assassination of a scientist involved in Iran's nuclear program in Tehran today, claiming that Israel was behind the latest strike as part of a broader covert war waged by the US, Israel, and the West to slow Iran's nuclear efforts. The attack – reported by witnesses to be carried out by two men on a motorcycle, who affixed a magnetic bomb to the target car in north Tehran – fits a pattern of previous killings of Iran's nuclear scientists. It comes as Washington is increasing pressure with sanctions targeting the Central Bank and Republican presidential candidates threatening military action against Iran.
The scientist killed, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, was a deputy director at Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment facility, a professor, and a chemistry graduate of Tehran's prestigious Sharif University of Technology. Iranian officials claimed the assassins were working for Israel and the US. “The terrorist action was carried out by the hirelings of the Zionist regime and those who claim to be fighting terrorism,” Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi told a cabinet meeting, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency. He condemned the killing as "evidence of [foreign] government-sponsored terrorism" and vowed that it would not stop "progress" of Iran's nuclear program. More
