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Envoy says Iran pursues case with assassination of scientist through IAEA

15 January 2012 02:57 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency Ali Asqar Soltaniyeh said Tehran will seriously pursue the case with the Wednesday assassination of its scientist, Mostafa Ahamdi Roshan, at the UN body, APA reports quoting FNA.

"As before, we will pursue this case at the IAEA even more seriously (than previous cases)," Soltaniyeh told FNA on Friday, and added, "This issue will be raised and pursued at the agency’s meetings, specially under the paragraphs pertaining to nuclear security, which is (an issue) currently under discussion at the agency."

In the fifth attack of its kind in two years, a magnetic bomb was attached to the car of 32-year-old Ahmadi Roshan during the Wednesday morning rush-hour in the capital, Tehran. His driver was also killed in the terrorist attack.

The Wednesday blast took place on the second anniversary of the martyrdom of Iranian university professor and nuclear scientist, Massoud Ali Mohammadi, who was also assassinated in a terrorist bomb attack in Tehran in January 2010.

The assassination method used in the Wednesday bombing was similar to the 2010 terrorist bomb attacks against the then university professor, Fereidoun Abbassi Davani - who is now the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization - and his colleague Majid Shahriari. Abbasi Davani survived the attack, while Shahriari was martyred.

Another Iranian scientist, Dariush Rezaeinejad, was also assassinated through the same method on 23 July 2011.

Soltaniyeh further reminded a seminar held during the IAEA general conference last summer on Iran’s assassinated nuclear scientists, and said the participants were briefed about the covert war of assassination against Iranian scientists during the gathering.

He condemned the terror attack on Roshan, and said such useless enemy measures would not leave even an iota of impact on "our people’s unity and resolve to pursue the attainment of our undeniable and indispensible right of access to science and technology, including the nuclear energy".

Such hostile acts will "rather make us more determined and we will show to the world that we would never compromise our principles", the envoy reiterated.

He also noted his letter to the chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) over the case, and said he has called for a global mobilization in the letter to "counter such devilish moves and prevent them from happening in future again".

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), with 120 member states from across the globe, condemned the assassination of the Iranian university professor and scientist in a communiquÃ© released on Thursday.

"The Non-Aligned Movement Coordinating Bureau, while reaffirming that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, condemns in the strongest terms the terrorist attack that occurred in Tehran, the Islamic Republic of Iran, on 11 January 2012, causing the death of another prominent Iranian scientist, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, and the injury of a number of others," NAM said in its statement on Thursday.

"The Movement expresses its deep sympathy and sincere condolences to the victims of this heinous act and to their families, and to the government and people of the Islamic Republic of Iran," it added.

NAM further reminded a similar statement that it had issued to condemn the assassination of several other Iranian scientists in the last two years, saying, "The NAM Coordinating Bureau further recalls paragraph 205.14 of the Bali Final Document adopted by the 16th NAM Ministerial Conference held in Bali, Indonesia, on 25 and 26 May 2011, that strongly condemned a number of terrorist attacks against Iranian scientists, which resulted in the loss of valuable human resources essential to the development of any country."

Elsewhere, Soltaniyeh also underlined Iran’s continued cooperation with the IAEA according to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) rules and IAEA statute, and stressed Iran’s commitment to the international rules and regulations.

He said although Iran’s nuclear dossier has been referred to the UN Security Council and while Iran has been hit by resolutions and sanctions, it has allowed normal inspections of its nuclear sites to continue, and it will continue the same policy in future.

This very policy of cooperation with the IAEA, the ambassador said, has caused the "Americans to fail in their efforts to rally a consensus against us and that’s why they just continue raising baseless allegations" against Iran.