Ahmadinejad: Assassination of Scientists Reveals Bankruptcy of Hegemonic Powers

"The evil hands of arrogance and Zionist agents have once again robbed Iran's scientific and academic circles of another young scientist," said President Ahmadinejad in a message on Tuesday.

The Iranian president warned that those criminals who think they can hinder Iran's progress through terrorist acts should know that such moves will create no obstacle in the way of the country's development but will rather consolidate the Iranian nation's determination to make progress in various fields.

On January 11, an unknown motorcyclist attached a magnetic bomb to the car of Iranian scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan near Allameh Tabatabaei University in Tehran. He was immediately killed and his driver, who sustained injuries, died a few hours later in a hospital.

Ahmadi Roshan was a Sharif University of Technology chemical engineering graduate and served as the deputy director of marketing at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility.

Earlier in the week Iran's First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi announced the government's determination to protect Iranian scientists

"The truth is that the enemies of the Islamic Revolution have realized that sanctions, imposing war and creating obstacles cannot stop the Iranian nation's scientific progress and therefore they resorted to assassination," Rahimi said on January 14.

In November 2011, some of the US presidential hopefuls called for conducting covert operations ranging from assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists to launching a military strike on Iran as well as sabotaging Tehran's nuclear program.

The calls for assassinations are not idle threats as a number of Iranian scientists have been assassinated over the past few years. Professor Majid Shahriari and Professor Masoud Ali-Mohammadi are among the victims of these acts of terror.

On November 29, 2010, Shahriari and Fereydoun Abbasi were targeted by terrorist attacks; Shahriari was killed immediately and Dr. Abbasi, the current director of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, only sustained injuries.

Source: Press TV