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Mon, Nov 29, 2010 | Fars News Agency | ISNA | Islami Davet | (Edited) By Crethi Plethi

Iranian President Ahmadinejad: "The West and Zionist Regime involved in terrorist attacks on Iranian Academics."

Ahmadinejad Blames West and Israel for Assassination of Iranian Academics

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has blamed Israel and Western powers for the recent bomb attacks which led to the death of an Iranian academic and the injury of another.

“The Zionists have once again targeted Iran’s scientific progress by shedding the blood of a university professor,” a statement by the office of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday. And at a press conference in Tehran on Monday Ahmadinejad said, “the western governments and the Zionist regime have a hand in the assassination of the two Iranian university professors.”

Dr. Majid Shahriari and Professor Fereydoun Abbasi Davani were assassinated in separate bomb attacks in Tehran on Monday morning. Shahriari was killed immediately, but professor Abbasi and his wife sustained injuries and were transferred to hospital. Both men were professors at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran.

Terrorists riding two motorcycles came close to the vehicle carrying Shahriari at 7:45 a.m. and threw a bomb at the car which blasted and killed the lecturer and wounded his wife and his driver, but both are now in good health conditions. According to Tehran District Police Chief Hossein Sajedinia a motorcycle approached Shahriari’s car and attached a magnetic bomb to the driver’s door of the car. Abbasi Davani was assassinated the same way, but he could survive the attack and was transferred to hospital along with his wife after being wounded in the attack. “They are now in hospital and under treatment …. Nobody has claimed responsibility of the bomb attempt so far which came on Monday morning and no suspect is arrested,” Sajedinia said. [ISNA; Mon, Nov 29, 2010]

Speaking to reporters about the Monday morning terrorist attacks on two university lecturer, Commander of Basij (volunteer) Forces Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi said, “Those behind these terrorist attacks, that is the US and the Zionist regime (of Israel), should know that their moves will not remain unanswered.” Meantime, he said that Iran’s second response to the assassination of its elites and university professors will come from within the community of the Iranian scientists, who would accelerate and expand their scientific advancements to show that enemies’ plots are futile and only strengthen the country’s resolve. Both of the professors targeted on Monday were members of the Basij, Iran’s volunteer paramilitary group. [Fars News Agency; Mon, Nov 29, 2010]

Scene after the bomb attack on Shahriari's car.

Resolution 1747 adopted by the United Nations Security Council in March 2007 against the Islamic Republic cited the name of Abbasi as one “involved in nuclear or ballistic missile activities in Iran,” thus suggesting that perpetrators behind the assassination could be traced through those who included the professor’s name in the UN resolution. [Islami Davet; Mon, Nov 29, 2010]. It does not call him a “nuclear scientist,” but describes him as a scientist for the Senior Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics who has links to the Institute of Applied Physics. The United Nations resolution says Abbasi has worked closely with another scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi, who led the Physics Research Center in Iran. [PressTV; Mon, Nov 29, 2010]

Another Iranian university professor and nuclear scientist, Massoud Ali Mohammadi, was also assassinated in a terrorist bomb attack in Tehran in January. The bomb which killed Ali Mohammadi had been planted on a motorcycle outside his home in Tehran’s Northern neighborhood of Qeytariyeh. After the assassination, President Ahmadinejad said that Israel was responsible for the terrorist attack on Ali Mohammadi.

The presidential office statement also referred to the “European Parliament’s new stance about the necessity of removing anti-Iran terrorist groups from the US black list” and its link to the recent terrorist attack in Tehran. Last week, the European Parliament issued a declaration, urging Washington to remove the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) from its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The European Union took the MKO off its blacklist in 2009. The terrorist group has been on the US terror list since 1997. [Islami Davet; Mon, Nov 29, 2010]

The European Union froze Professor Fereydoun Abbasi’s assets last month as it imposed additional sanctions on Iran.