Iran claims it foiled Israeli hit on nuke scientist

Revolutionary Guard official doesn’t specify alleged target’s name or when the attack was thwarted

By ToI Staff 3 January 2015, 7:12 pm

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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, second from left, visits a nuclear research facility in Tehran in February 2012 (photo credit: AP/Iranian President's Office)

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps thwarted an Israeli assassination attempt on one of the country’s nuclear scientists, according to Iranian media reports on Saturday.

A senior official in the Iranian military organization told the semi-official Fars news agency that the Revolutionary Guards prevented an attempted hit sometime in the past two years, but didn’t specify when or the identity of the target.

The Islamic republic has claimed numerous times that Israel was behind the deaths of several of its nuclear scientists in recent years.

“The Zionist enemy (Israel) took action to assassinate a nuclear scientist during the past two years, but the timely presence of IRGC security men thwarted this operation,” an official identified only as Colonel Baqeri was quoted by PressTV telling the news outlet.

The colonel added that the IRGC, which is directly subordinate to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and is tasked with protecting the regime, is “duty-bound to protect nuclear scientists.”

Four Iranian nuclear scientists have died since 2010 in explosions and a shootings by unknown assailants. Foreign journalists have long pointed the finger at Mossad, Israel’s covert intelligence agency. Israel has refused to confirm or deny any of the allegations.

Members of the Iranian opposition, however, have previously asserted that the Iranian government was behind the deaths of certain nuclear scientists.

In May 2012, Dubai-based news channel Al-Arabiya, quoting Iranian opposition sources, reported that Tehran had executed a man for being an Israeli spy as cover for having assassinated its own nuclear scientist Masoud Ali Mohammadi in a car bombing in January 2010.

Mahboobeh Hosseinpour, the sister of Dr. Arash Hosseinpour, an Iranian nuclear scientist that died of mysterious circumstances in January 2007, additionally claimed in September that her brother was killed by the IRGC after refusing to cooperate with the regime’s demands to develop a nuclear weapons program.

Spencer Ho and Elhanan Miller contributed to this report.