#news : #Iran condemns attacks against nuclear scientists

2010-12-11 08:00:44

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Iran strongly condemns the attacks killing Iranian nuclear scientists over the past weeks as "terrorist attacks," the Iranian permanent representative to the UN, Mohammed Khazaee, said in an open letter to UN leaders issued here Friday.

Khazaee said Iran is deeply concerned over "such cruel, inhuman and criminal acts of terrorism against the Iranian scientists."

The Iranian ambassador made the statement in his letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, General Assembly President Joseph Deiss, and Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the UN who holds the rotating Council presidency for December.

The letter came after major powers -- five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany -- and Iran agreed on Tuesday to meet again next month on the dispute of the Iranian nuclear program.

Tehran denied the Western allegations that it is developing nuclear weapons, insisting its nuclear program is only for peaceful purpose.

"While reiterating the peaceful nature of Iranian nuclear activities, I would like to emphasize that Iran would not compromise over its inalienable right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and any kind of political and economic pressures or terrorist attacks targeting the Iranian nuclear scientists, could not prevent our nation in exercising this right," Khazaee said.

The Iranian ambassador also noted that UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council are "expected to uphold responsibilities in condemning these inhumane terrorist acts and to take effective steps towards elimination of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations."

On Nov. 29, two Iranian prominent physicists, Majid Shahriari and Fereydoun Abbasi Davani, were targeted in two separate terrorist attacks in the Iranian capital of Tehran. Shahriari was martyred as a result and Abbasi Davani and his wife were seriously injured.

In January this year, Professor Massoud Ali Mohammedi, who is also an Iranian scientist, was assassinated in front of his house.

"Based on the available evidence collected by the relevant Iranian security authorities, certain quarters which have spared no efforts in depriving the Islamic Republic of Iran from its inalienable right to peaceful nuclear energy, are behind the attacks," the Iranian ambassador said.

"As has been claimed by the same circles, these terrorist acts have been carried out as part of the efforts to disrupt Iran's peaceful nuclear program, since they assume that diplomacy alone would not be enough for that purpose," he added.

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