7:33AM BST 14 May 2012
Iran is set to meet UN nuclear agency officials on Monday for the first time in three months, with world powers watching closely for clues on Tehran's stance ahead of their forthcoming Baghdad talks.
The last time Iran's envoy (click here) to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, and chief inspector Hermann Nackaerts met officially was in early February during the second of two fruitless IAEA visits to Tehran.
The IAEA had said after those trips – branded a "failure" by Washington – that "major differences" existed with Tehran on how to ease suspicions that Iran's nuclear programme is not, as it claims, purely peaceful.
The watchdog said Iran brushed aside extensive claims made in a November IAEA report that at least until 2003, and possibly since, activities took place which the agency said could only conceivably be aimed at developing nuclear weapons.
Iran also denied Nackaerts access to the Parchin military site near Tehran where the November report alleged Iran had conducted suspicious explosives tests in a large metal container, the IAEA said....
Where were we during this trial? Was it so classified the world did not know? This trial should have been a global event. One of the complaints Iran has regarding inspections is the fact a nuclear scientist is executed within Iran after a visit has taken place. Iran will use this execution as a leverage with the inspectors as if they were spies and I would not be surprised if any inspector will be treated as an enemy of the state. Iran has never come forward with evidence of any other nation's involvement in these killings and yet they will make accusations to that effect. It is best if Iran does not make an international incident out of their own internal problems.
Man executed for attack on Iranian nuclear scientist (click here)
updated 6:21 AM EDT, Tue May 15, 2012
(CNN) -- Iran has executed
a man who was convicted of killing one of its nuclear scientists, state-run
Press TV reported Tuesday.
Majid
Jamali Fashi was convicted of the January 2010 killing of Massoud Ali
Mohammadi, an Iranian university professor and a nuclear scientist. Prosecutors
also accused Fashi of working for Israel's spy agency Mossad and said he was
paid $120,000 by Israel to carry out the hit.
Israel
does not comment on such claims.
The
killing was among a series of attacks against Iranian nuclear scientists in
recent years.
In
January, Iran sent a letter to the United Nations secretary general alleging
that the killings of the scientists were terrorist attacks that followed a
clear pattern.
"There
is firm evidence that certain foreign quarters are behind such
assassinations," the letter said, "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."
Mostafa
Ahmadi Roshan, another nuclear scientist, was killed in a blast in Tehran in January
of this year after a motorcyclist placed a magnetic bomb under his Peugeot 405
automobile. Mohammadi and one other scientist were killed in a similar fashion
in the last two years.
With no
one claiming responsibility, the killings remain shrouded in mystery....
Fashi was hanged. The world should have been able to witness the trial. Iran insists he wasa Mossad spy. They need to provide proof of their claims.
Fashi was hanged. The world should have been able to witness the trial. Iran insists he wasa Mossad spy. They need to provide proof of their claims.
MOSCOW, May 15 (RIA Novosti)
Iranian authorities executed on Tuesday a young man (click here) convicted of killing an Iranian
nuclear scientist in 2010, IRNA news agency reported.
“Majid Jamali Fashi, the Mossad spy and the person who
assassinated Masoud Ali Mohammadi, our nation's nuclear scientist, was hanged
on Tuesday morning,” Irna reported.
Fashi was accused of receiving $120,000 for passing information
on to Israel's intelligence agency Mossad.
The Iranian scientist, described as “a staunch supporter” of the
Islamic revolution was killed on January 12, 2010, when a remote-controlled
explosive device attached to a motorbike was detonated near his home in
northern Tehran.Iran blamed Israel and the United
States for the murder.
Shortly after the incident, Al Jazeera said Mohammadi, a
lecturer at Tehran University, might have had links to Iran’s disputed nuclear
program.
Western powers suspect Iran of
seeking to build nuclear weapons under the guise of its nuclear program,
which Tehran says is aimed at the peaceful generation of civilian energy….
MOSCOW, May 14 (RIA Novosti)
Russia
remains opposed to new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program and is
not considering them at present, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady
Gatilov said on Monday.
"UN Security Council sanctions over Iran would be
contradictory," he said.
Western nations suspect Iran of pursuing a secret nuclear
weapons program but Tehran insists it needs nuclear power solely for civilian
purposes.
Iran is currently subject to a series of EU and U.S. sanctions,
including measures targeting the country's lucrative oil industry.
