Enemies targeted Iran-P5+1 talks

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi says arrogant powers have targeted the planned talks between Tehran and the P5+1 through assassination.

“Ahead of the upcoming talks, the malicious [arrogant powers] intended to display a glimpse of their political mischief which is their carrot and stick approach,” Salehi said at the funeral procession held for Iranian academic Majid Shahriari, who was assassinated in a terrorist attack in Tehran on Monday.

He slammed the terrorist attack and said the Iranian nation is faced with a more difficult battle in the arena of science and thought.

Meanwhile, Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign policy advisor to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was made with the targeting of the Muslim world as its main objective.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran, as the center of this attack, is targeted by acts of terrorism,” Velayati said.

He added that the assassination of Shahriari is a link in the chain of broad attacks by the global arrogance against the Muslim world.

“A glance at the geography of the Muslim world shows that the entire Muslim world is the target of the direct and indirect aggression of the US-led global arrogance,” Velayati underlined.

“The war today is soft war,” said Velayati, naming Shahriari as one of the officers fighting against enemy attacks.

“Enemies have resorted to every means to stop the powerful rise of the Muslim world against the arrogant [powers] in different fields,” the top Iranian official added.

He reiterated that the Islamic establishment would continue its support for those who promote science and technology in the country.

Unknown terrorists detonated bombs in the vehicles of Dr. Majid Shahriari and Professor Fereydoun Abbasi in separate locations on November 29 between 7-8 a.m. local time.

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.

Iran has blamed Israel and Western powers for the terrorist attacks, hinting at the possible connection between the recent remarks of the head of the British intelligence agency (MI6) about Iran and the European Parliament’s new stance regarding anti-Iran terrorist group Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO).

On October 28, MI6 chief John Sawers accused Iran of pursuing clandestine nuclear activities and said spying is crucial to stop Tehran’s nuclear program.

“Stopping nuclear proliferation cannot be addressed purely by conventional diplomacy. We need intelligence-led operations to make it more difficult for countries like Iran to develop nuclear weapons,” Sawers said.

Last week, the European Parliament issued a declaration, urging Washington to remove the 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.

The MKO is listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community and is responsible for numerous acts of terror and violence against Iranian civilians and government officials.

The organization is also known to have cooperated with Iraq’s former dictator Saddam Hussein in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds.