The chairman of the Iranian Parliament has blamed Israel and the US for the recent assassination of a scientist in Iran.
“The American-Zionist terrorist attack yesterday against one of the country’s scientists is yet another sign of the Americans’ degree of animosity,” Ali Larijani told MPs on 24 July.
Darioush Rezainejad was shot dead by a man on a motorbike in Tehran on 23 July. Iranian officials initially claimed he was a physics professor involved in the country’s nuclear research programme, prompting speculation that the shooting was part of a campaign to slow controversial nuclear operations.
However, such claims have since been retracted. The Iranian Students’ News Agency reported that Rezainejad was an electronics master’s student at Tehran’s Khajeh Nassir University.
State media attempted to explain the discrepancy by saying that the dead man carried a similar name to a scientist involved in nuclear projects.
Despite Larijani’s claims, Iran’s intelligence minister, Heidar Moslehi, told reporters that investigations into the incident “have not seen any signal which demonstrates the attack had been carried out by foreign services”.