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IAEA rejects Iran accusation over scientist’s killing

20 January 2012 17:29 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The U.N. nuclear watchdog rejected on Friday Iranian suggestions it may have been partly to blame for the assassination of a nuclear scientist last week by leaking information about him, saying it did not know him, APA reports quoting Reports.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the Vienna-based U.N. nuclear body, separately confirmed that senior IAEA officials would travel to Tehran later this month for rare talks about the Islamic state’s disputed nuclear program.

The IAEA delegation, to be headed by Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts, is expected to seek explanations for intelligence information that indicates Iran has engaged in research and development relevant for nuclear weapons.

"I am fully committed to working constructively with Iran and I trust that Iran will approach our forthcoming discussions in an equally constructive spirit," IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said in a statement about the meeting.

Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA told Reuters on Tuesday the visit would take place from Jan 29-31 and that his country was open to discuss "any issues" of interest for the agency.

Tension between Iran and the West over Iran’s nuclear program has increased since November, when the IAEA published a report that said Tehran appeared to have worked on designing a nuclear weapon. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful and aimed at generating electricity.

Iran said on Thursday that the assassins who killed nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, 32, on January 11 may have used information obtained from the United Nations.

U.S. DENIES INVOLVEMENT

Ahmadi-Roshan was killed by a motorbike hitman who put a magnetic bomb on his car during the morning rush hour. Iran, at odds with Western governments over its nuclear program, has accused U.S. and Israeli agents of being behind the killing.

Iran’s deputy U.N. ambassador Eshagh Al Habib told the Security Council on Thursday that Ahmadi-Roshan recently met IAEA inspectors, "a fact that indicates that these U.N. agencies may have played a role in leaking information on Iran’s nuclear facilities and scientist."

But IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor said in an e-mail: "The Agency has not released this man’s name. We do not know him."

Iran has in the past accused the IAEA of leaking the names of nuclear scientists, making them potential targets for the security services of Iran’s foes in the West and Israel. IAEA officials have dismissed the allegations.

The murder of Ahmadi-Roshan was the fifth such attack in two years on technical experts involved in Iran’s nuclear program, which Western countries believe is aimed at producing an atomic weapon but Tehran says is for peaceful purposes.

The United States has denied involvement in the killing and has condemned it. An Israeli minister said this week that Iran’s charges of Israeli involvement were "completely baseless."

The Security Council has imposed four rounds of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear activities. Its list of sanctioned individuals does not include Ahmadi-Roshan, but does name another scientist, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, wounded in a Tehran car bomb blast in November, 2010.