Larijani slams US for terror of Iranian scientist

After Iran accused the US and Israel of involvement in the assassination of an Iranian nuclear physics scientist, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani moves to deplore the terrorist act.

“We had received information a few days before the incident that intelligence services of the Zionist regime [Israel] intend to carry out terrorist acts in Tehran in cooperation with the CIA,” Larijani said on Wednesday.

He pointed to the US failed efforts concerning Iran’s nuclear drive and said the United States adopted the carrot and stick approach and issued resolutions to meet the demands of Israel.

“After the failure of all its hostile policies, it currently resorts to the physical elimination of Iranian nuclear scientists,” he said.

He underlined that such terrorist acts would bear no fruits, saying, “The Iranian nation will firmly protect nuclear achievements of the country.”

On Tuesday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry accused the US and Israel of having played a role in the assassination of Professor Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, who was killed by a booby-trapped motorbike blast.

“Primary investigations into the assassination revealed signs of the involvement of the Zionist regime [Israel], the US and their allies in Iran,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said.

However, the US State Department Spokesman Mark Toner moved Tuesday to dismiss any links to the bomb attack in the Iranian capital and said, “Charges of US involvement are absurd.”

The Iran Royal Association, an obscure monarchist group that seeks to reestablish the Pahlavi reign in Iran, announced in a statement that its “Tondar Commandos” were behind the assassination of Ali-Mohammadi.

The group, headed by Foroud Fouladvand, also claimed responsibility for a deadly bombing in the southern city of Shiraz back in April 2008, in which 13 people were killed and hundreds were wounded.

Larijani criticized the group’s statement and said the claims were a deliberate cover-up of Washington’s involvement in the incident.

“This dark point will be recorded in the history of US crimes against the Iranian nation. It is not clear whether this adventurism will have an appropriate ending for the US,” the speaker said.