Iran urged the U.N. Security Council and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday to condemn the latest in a series of assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists, which it called "cruel, inhumane and criminal acts of terrorism." In a letter to Ban, Iranian Ambassador to the U.N. Mohammad Khazaee wrote, "The Islamic Republic of Iran expresses its deep concern over, and lodges its strong condemnation of, such cruel, inhumane and criminal acts of terrorism against the Iranian scientists. My country has suffered the most from acts of terrorism in terms of human losses and material damages in the past decades. It is highly expected from the secretary-general of the United Nations, and president of the Security Council of the United Nations as well as all other relevant organs and bodies to condemn, in the strongest terms, these inhumane terrorist acts and to take effective steps toward elimination of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations." The Iranian ambassador also wrote, "There is firm evidence that certain foreign quarters are behind such assassinations. As has been claimed by these circles, such terrorist acts have been carried out as part of the efforts to disrupt Irans peaceful nuclear program, under the false assumption that diplomacy alone would not be enough for that purpose. These quarters have spared no efforts in depriving the Islamic Republic of Iran from its inalienable right to peaceful nuclear energy and called for conducting covert operations ranging from assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists to launching a military strike on Iran as well as sabotaging Tehrans nuclear program." Also on Thursday, a hard-line Iranian newspaper called for retaliation against Israel for the assassination. "I want to categorically deny any United States involvement in any kind of act of violence inside Iran," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters. "We believe there has to be an understanding between Iran, its neighbors and the international community that finds a way forward for it to end its provocative behavior, end its search for nuclear weapons and rejoin the international community and be a productive member of it." Ahmadi-Roshan, 32, was deputy director of the Natanz uranium enrichment plant and a professor at Tehrans technical university. He was a chemistry expert who was involved in building polymeric layers for gas separation. While he was sitting in his car in northern Tehran Wednesday, two unidentified assailants on a motorbike attached a magnetic bomb to his car, near his headrest. A driver was killed, while a third passenger and passerby were also wounded in the blast. Iranian officials were quick to pin the attack on Israel. "The bomb was a magnetic one and the same as the ones previously used for the assassination of the scientists, and the work of the Zionists (Israelis)," Iranian Fars News Agency quoted Tehran Deputy Governor Safarali Baratloo as saying. The U.N. has not heeded previous Iranian calls for condemnations of similar assassinations. Even if the Security Council were to take up the issue, the U.S. could use its veto power to block even the mildest condemnation. Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters earlier on Wednesday that the U.N. was aware of the reports out of Tehran but had no immediate comment. Meanwhile, French newspaper Le Figaro reported Wednesday that the "Israeli Mossad, which operates in the Kurdish area of northern Iraq, is training Iranian citizens of Kurdish descent ... to carry out attacks against the Iranian regime." While this is not the first time that foreign media outlets have reported about alleged Israeli activities in the region, Le Figaro reported that the Mossad has stepped up efforts in the area following the recent U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq. On Tuesday, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz said Iran should expect more "unnatural" events in 2012. His comments, to a closed Knesset panel in Jerusalem, were widely interpreted as alluding to previous acts of sabotage. "For Iran, 2012 is a critical year in combining the continuation of its nuclearization, internal changes in the Iranian leadership, continuing and growing pressure from the international community and things which take place in an unnatural manner," Gantz was quoted as saying. Two daylight bomb attacks in Tehran in November 2010 killed one nuclear scientist and wounded another. Iran blamed Israeli, British and U.S. intelligence for those attacks, which it said were aimed at assassinating key people working on Iran's nuclear program.
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A column Thursday in teh Kayhan newspaper by chief editor Hossein Shariatmadari asked why Iran does not retaliant, suggesting assassinations of Israeli officials and military are possible. He noted that Irasel has many times said it plans to damage Iran's nuclear program.
Meanwhile, the U.S. denied any role in the Wednesday killing of Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, the latest in a series of events that have exacerbated tensions with Iran.
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