'Russia will not brook attack on Iran'

Outgoing Russian Ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/220920.html

Russia has warned that it would consider any NATO military action against Iran a 'direct threat' to its national security.

"Iran is our neighbor, and if Iran is involved in any military action, it's a direct threat to our security," Russia's outgoing ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, told reporters in the Belgian capital Brussels on Friday.

"We are definitely interested in the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. But at the same time, we believe that any country has the right to have what it needs to feel comfortable, including Iran."

The comments come one day after the secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Nikolai Patrushev, warned about the Israeli lobby's efforts to drag the United States into a military confrontation with Iran.

"There is a likelihood of a military conflict escalation, to which the Americans are being pushed by Israel," Patrushev said in an interview with Interfax on Thursday.

In addition, on Wednesday an Iranian scientist, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, was killed in a terrorist attack. In the incident, a motorcyclist attached a magnetic bomb to his car near a building of Allameh Tabatabaei University in Tehran.

Ahmadi Roshan was the deputy director of marketing at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility.

The terrorist attack took place shortly after Iran reached an agreement with the P5+1 group -- Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States, and Germany -- to hold negotiations in Turkey.

The US, Israel, and their allies accuse Iran of pursuing a military nuclear program and have used this allegation as a pretext to convince the United Nations Security Council to impose four rounds of sanctions on Iran.

They have also repeatedly threatened to launch a military strike against.

In November 2011, some US presidential candidates said operations should be carried out against Iran, such as assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists, sabotage of Tehran's nuclear program, and even a military strike on the country.

The calls for assassinations are not idle threats as a number of Iranian scientists have been assassinated over the past few years. Professor Majid Shahriari and Professor Masoud Ali-Mohammadi were victims of these acts of terror.

On November 29, 2010, Shahriari and Fereydoun Abbasi were targeted in terrorist attacks. Shahriari was killed immediately, but Abbasi, the current director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, sustained injuries but survived.

Iran says UN Resolution 1747, which was approved in March 2007, cited Abbasi's name and identified him as a "nuclear scientist," which helped the attackers target their victim.

According to reports, Ahmadi Roshan had recently met International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors. Iran says the IAEA has leaked information about Iran's nuclear facilities and scientists.

'Sketchy IAEA report sets stage for war'

According to a 2009 Wikileaks cable, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano asserted that "he was solidly in the US court on every key strategic decision, from high-level personnel appointments to the handling of Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/220902.html

A former International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director has spoken out against the agency's recent report on Iran's nuclear program, saying he does not want to see another war waged based on “recycled, discredited data.”

“In the 24-page document, intended for a restricted distribution but widely available on the Internet, all but three of the items that were offered as proof of a possible nuclear-arms program are either undated or refer to events before 2004,” Robert Kelley wrote in an article titled “Nuclear Arms Charge against Iran Is No Slam Dunk” on the Bloomberg website on Wednesday.

Of the remaining three, he added, two are attributed only to two member states, “so the sourcing is impossible to evaluate.”

Kelley said the remaining allegation was in fact a revival of a two-page document, “purporting to come from Iran,” which the IAEA received in 2009.

“Mohamed ElBaradei, who was then the agency's director general, rejected the information because there was no chain of custody for the paper, no clear source, document markings, date of issue or anything else that could establish its authenticity. What's more, the document contained style errors, suggesting the author was not a native Farsi speaker. It appeared to have been typed using Arabic, rather than a Farsi, word-processing program.”

The IAEA released its latest report on Tehran's nuclear program on November 8, claiming that Iran has been engaged in activities related to developing nuclear weapons before 2003, which “may still be ongoing.”

Iran dismissed the report as "unbalanced, unprofessional and prepared with political motivation and under political pressure mostly by the United States.”

Having already lobbied for the imposition of four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran, the US and its allies have since used the recent IAEA report to slap even stricter unilateral sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

On New Year's Eve, US President Barack Obama signed into law fresh economic sanctions against Iran's Central Bank in an apparent bid to punish foreign companies and banks that do business with the Iranian financial institution.

The European Union followed suit with its foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton threatening Tehran with continuing sanctions. “I expect Iran will realize that we will continue with sanctions. EU members are discussing further sanctions right now,” she said.

The EU foreign ministers are expected to hold a meeting later this month on January 23 to discuss proposed embargo on Iran's oil exports.

The IAEA report has more alarmingly led to calls from various US and Israeli corners for a military strike against Iran.

On December 20, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta claimed that Iran was one year away from building an atomic weapon, threatening that Washington will take every step “necessary” to stop Tehran's nuclear program.

Less than a week later, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey said the US military is ready to launch a military strike against Iran, if occasion necessitates.

With the upcoming US presidential election, the Republican candidates have similarly heightened the anti-Iran rhetoric, in an apparent bid to win Zionist votes.

Meanwhile, Israeli officials have also recently stepped up their war rhetoric against Iran. On November 21, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned the "time has come" to deal with Iran. Israeli President Shimon Peres also threatened on November 6 that an attack against Iran is becoming "more and more likely."

The former IAEA director said he is “speaking up” about the flawed IAEA report, “because, as a member of the IAEA's Iraq Action Team in 2003, I learned firsthand how withholding the facts can lead to bloodshed.”

“Having known the details then, though I was not allowed to speak, I feel a certain shared responsibility for the war that killed more than 4,000 Americans and more than 100,000 Iraqis. A private citizen today, I hope to help ensure the facts are clear before the US takes further steps that could lead, intentionally or otherwise, to a new conflagration, this time in Iran,” he said.

Iran blasts US, UK for Nuclear Scientist assassination

On Wednesday, January 11, 2012, scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was killed in a terrorist attack in the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/220809.html

Iran's Foreign Ministry has blasted the US and UK governments for their obvious roles in assassinating Iranian scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan in two strongly-worded protest notes.

Ahmadi Roshan was assassinated on Wednesday, after an unknown motorcyclist attached a sticky bomb to his car near Allameh Tabatabaei University in Tehran, killing him instantly.

The note to the UK Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed to the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists that immediately followed the remarks of head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) John Sawers, who discussed the launch of intelligence operations against Iran.

The note read that Iran's Foreign Ministry "voices its strong protest to the outcome of the mentioned British approach and underscores that the Uk is responsible for such acts of terror."

In October 2010, Sawers accused Iran of pursuing clandestine nuclear activities, adding the country's nuclear program cannot be halted through "conventional diplomacy."

"Stopping nuclear proliferation cannot be addressed purely by conventional diplomacy. We need intelligence-led operations to make it more difficult for countries like Iran to develop nuclear weapons," Sawers said.

In November 2010, shortly after Sawers remarks, terrorists detonated bombs attached to the vehicles of Dr. Majid Shahriari and Professor Fereydoun Abbasi, both professors at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, in separate locations.

Shahriari was killed immediately while Abbasi and his wife sustained minor injuries and were released from hospital shortly afterwards.

In a separate note addressed to the US government, sent via the Swiss Embassy which represents the US in Iran, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said diplomatic notes from Tehran about evidence of American support for anti-Iran terrorist groups have remained unanswered or have been met with Washington's approving silence.

"Based on credible evidence and reliable intelligence, this terrorist operation [on January 11] was carried out with the guidance, support, and planning of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the direct complicity of its elements. Thus the direct responsibility (of the terrorist attack) lies with the (US) government."

The note stressed that based on international law and conventions the US government must be answerable.

The note further warned the US government to immediately end terrorist operations targeting the lives of Iranian citizens.

"The Islamic Republic reserves the right to follow up on the issue accordingly," the note concluded.

Iran vows legal bid on Israeli terror

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159627.html


Iran says it will exploit all its resources to condemn Israel and bring the regime to justice over its terror efforts against Iranian nuclear scientists.

“The issue that we will actively pursue is the condemnation of this illegal regime (Israel) and its punishment as the perpetrator of crimes against humanity and our scientists,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said at his weekly press briefing on Tuesday.

“We will definitely utilize all our means and capabilities to follow up the case in international legal bodies,” he said.

We will also pursue a legal case for the Israeli terror efforts using evidence and documentations compiled on the issue, he added.

The Iranian spokesperson also condemned Western support of the Israeli regime in sponsoring and carrying out acts of terrorism.

“That the Zionist regime (Israel) officially announces that it has had a hand in such terror efforts is indicative of an ongoing state terrorism and we regret that Western countries support such illegitimate acts by Israel.”

Mehmanparast's remarks came in response to a question about Iran's legal pursuits against the assassination of Iranian nuclear physics scientist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi.

Dr. Ali-Mohammadi, a lecturer at the University of Tehran, was killed when a remote-controlled bomb detonated near his house in the north of the Iranian capital, Tehran, in July 2010.

Iran's Intelligence Ministry said in a statement released on Monday that it has arrested the main perpetrators in connection with the assassination and dismantled a network comprising of Israeli-trained spies and terrorists following extensive security operations.

It said that Israeli intelligence service Mossad has used bases in certain European and non-European countries as well as some of Iran's neighboring states in an attempt to achieve its inhumane, anti-Islam and anti-Iranian objectives, including the assassination of Dr. Ali-Mohammadi.

Nuclear scientists hitmen trained by Mossad

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159527.html


Senior Iranian lawmaker Esmail Kowsari says the assassins of an Iranian nuclear scientist have confessed to being supported by the Israeli intelligence service.

In July 2010, Iranian nuclear physics scientist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi was killed when a remote-controlled bomb detonated near his house in the north of the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Following security operations, Iran finally succeeded in arresting the main agents behind the terrorist incident and dismantled a network comprising of spies and terrorists commissioned by Israel, Intelligence Ministry announced on Monday.

Long before the assassination of Ali-Mohammadi, the intelligence officials of Israel, the UK and the US had publicly threatened to kill our nuclear scientists, Kowsari said on Monday.

“These [arrested] people have confessed that they had received assassination training from [Israeli inrtelligenece agency] Mossad; and Mossad had provided all their equipment,” Fars News Agency quoted deputy head of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission on Monday.

Kowsari added that the confessions of the detainees could be helpful in the arrest of the perpetrators of Dr. Majid Shahriari's assassination.

On November 29, unknown terrorists detonated bombs in the vehicles of Majid Shahriari and Fereydoun Abbasi -- both professors at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran.

Shahriari was killed immediately, but Abbasi and his wife sustained minor injuries and were transferred to a hospital and later released.

“Certainly these people are not the perpetrators of Dr. Shahriari assassination, but given the fact that all these terrorists take orders from Mossad, the confession of the detainees could be helpful in the arrest of agents behind the assassination of Dr. Shahriari and Dr. Abbasi,” Kowsari concluded.

Iran's Intelligence Ministry said in its statement that the Israeli intelligence service Mossad has used bases in certain European and non-European countries as well as Iran's neighboring states in an attempt to achieve its inhumane goals.