Tehran denies reports on Iranian scientist's "assassination" by Israel's security service
5/2/2007 16:26
Tehran has denied recent reports that an Iranian nuclear scientist had
been "assassinated" by Israeli security service Mossad, local Fars news agency
reported yesterday. Ardeshire Hassanpour, a 44-year-old Iranian nuclear
physicist, had been "suffocated by fumes from a faulty gas fire in sleep," Fars
quoted an unidentified "informed source" as saying, denying his "assassination"
by Mossad as some reports said. The source added that Hassanpour had been a
Shiraz University professor and was in no way connected to Iran's Uranium
Conversion Facility (UCF) in the country's central city of Isfahan. British
newspaper The Sunday Times reported yesterday that the prize-winning Iranian
nuclear scientist has died in mysterious circumstances and an intelligence
source suggested that he had been assassinated by Mossad. Quoting Radio
Farda, which is funded by the US State Department and broadcasts to Iran, the
British newspaper said Hassanpour worked at a plant in Isfahan where uranium
hexafluoride gas is produced. The report added that Iran announced his death
on Jan. 21 after a delay of six days, giving the cause as "gas
poisoning." Hassanpour won Iran's leading military research prize in 2004 and
was awarded top prize at the Kharazmi international science festival in Iran
last year. Rheva Bhalla of Stratfor, the US intelligence company, claimed on
Friday that Hassanpour had been targeted by Mossad and that there was "very
strong intelligence" to suggest that he had been assassinated by the
Israelis. But in the Fars report, the Iranian source strongly denied the
theory, saying that the Israeli intelligence agency "is basically incapable of
running operations inside Iran." "Such reports are released to serve
propaganda purposes," he said, adding that "Iran's nuclear scientists are
continuing their efforts to master civilian nuclear technology for peaceful
purposes." Earlier yesterday, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, Iranian vice president
and head of the country's Atomic Energy Organization, also denied the reports,
saying that all the country's "nuclear experts, thank God, are sound and
safe." According to Fars, Aghazadeh said that no such person called Ardeshire
Hassanpour had been among his employees.
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