raising loud demands in the Islamic Republic for revenge against the United States.
Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, 32, was killed in broad daylight in the middle of a major thoroughfare in the Seyed Khandan neighborhood. As he was being driven to work by a bodyguard assigned to him by the state, a motorbike drew up beside his Peugeot 405 at 8:20 a.m. in Gol Nabi Street. The man seated on the back of the bike leaned over and stuck a magnetized bomb to the car. Then the motorbike drove off and disappeared into 
Seconds later, the bomb went off, killing Roshan and his driver and injuring a passerby. Pieces of the car ended up in the trees overhead and body parts were scattered in the street. Yet, the car remained largely intact and there was only minimal damage to adjacent buildings. That suggested the magnetic bomb was designed to penetrate the vehicle and do most of its damage inside the car.
Although only 32 years old, Roshan was described as being the deputy director of the Natanz centrifuge plant in charge of purchasing. That would appear to make him a key person in the effort to defeat sanctions and obtain the components Iran cannot make domestically and much procure abroad. Roshan was described as a chemical engineer, but his role at Natanz appeared to be administrative rather than scientific.
Angry denunciations came from all sectors of the Islamic Republic’s leadership. Unusually, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi himself spoke out to denounce “this cowardly act of terrorism” carried out by “global arrogance” because it has been foiled by “the determined, devout and progressive people of Islamic Iran.”
Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani said several people had been arrested for the crime. But the authorities have made no such claims. The Intelligence Ministry has, however, blamed the United States, Israel and Britain for the killing, though it has provided not one piece of evidence. Curiously, it did not blame the Mojahedin-e Khalq.
The White House and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton very firmly denied any role in the killing and in the previous murders of nuclear scientists. Those comments were just brushed aside in Tehran.
White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said, “The United States had absolutely nothing to do with this.” Clinton said, “I want to categorically deny any United States involvement in any kind of violence inside Iran.”
In Tehran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast dismissed the denials out of hand, calling them “pretentious” and saying the killing reveals America’s “true image.”
Gen. Masud Jazayeri, the military’s director of culture (propaganda), named Britain, Israel and the United States as the culprits and proclaimed that the Islamic Republic would “torment” them for their evil deeds.
Clinton went beyond denial to express exasperation with the conduct of the Islamic Republic. “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.”
Analysts generally theorized that Israel was behind the attack, and that neither Britain nor the United States had any role, despite Iran’s allegations. Israel was mum. President Shimon Peres was asked about the attack and said he was “not aware” of any Israeli role. But Peres is not part of the security cabinet that makes such decisions and so would logically be unaware.
Israel has never hidden the fact that it has used highly targeted assassinations over the decades. Most have been aimed at Palestinian leaders, but it is believed to have shot dead a European scientist working for Saddam Hussein’s government.
Most Western news accounts called Roshan the fifth major figure in Iran’s nuclear program to be killed in two years. But Iranian officials say two of the deaths cited in the West were not foreign plots.
Here is the history:
January 11, 2009—Masud-Ali Mohammadi, a nuclear scientist, was killed by a remote controlled bomb that was planted on a bicycle chained to a tree beside his car. When Mohammadi emerged from his apartment and got into his car, the bomb was detonated by someone in a nearby building. Police later arrested Majid Jamali-Fashi and broadcast a confession in which he said he was trained in Israel by Israeli intelligence and paid $120,000 to carry out that killing. After that murder, the government promised more security for its nuclear scientists and assigned drivers to each of them.
November 29, 2010—Magnetic bombs, like the one used last week, were attached by men on motorbikes to the chauffeur-driven cars of two more nuclear scientists. The attacks happened minutes apart in different sections of the capital. One bomb killed Majid Shahriari. In the other car, Fereydun Abbasi-Davani realized what was happening and jumped out the other side of the car with his wife in tow before the explosion. A few months later, he was named to head the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. Iran blamed Israel and the United States, but has not arrested anyone. The government promised to provide more security for its scientists.
July 23, 2011—Daryoush Rezai-nejad was shot dead by gunmen who attacked him as he waited on a sidewalk for his son to emerge from school. The intelligence minister has said the killing does not appear to have had anything to do with his being a scientist. No one has been arrested and the government hasn’t said if it has any suspects. But it does not blame any foreign government and has left the impression it thinks the man was killed by some personal enemy.
November 12, 2011—A massive explosion at a Pasdar base near Karaj killed about two dozen Pasdaran including Maj. Gen. Hassan Moqaddam, the head of Iran’s missile program. Many Western news accounts listed him as a victim of assassins. But Iran says the explosion of a vast amount of ammunition stored at the base was an accident.
January 11, 2012—On the second anniversary of the killing of the first scientist, Roshan is murdered using the same magnetic bomb technique used to kill the second nuclear scientist. The government promises to provide more security for its nuclear scientists.
Five days after Roshan’s murder, Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi publicly said Britain, Israel and the United States all had a role in the killing.
There has been much speculation in the Tehran media that scientists are being killed in order to discourage others from having anything to do with Iran’s nuclear program, not to try to knock off every scientist in the program. In an effort to counter that, the media gave publicity this week to an announcement by “a number” of students at Sharif University of Technology that they are ready to work in the nuclear program.
Karim Sadjadpour, an Iranian at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, had a different theory. He believes the Iranian government has targeted at least some of the scientists because they supported the reformist opposition in the 2009 elections. Mohammadi, the first to die, was widely described as a supporter of the candidacy of Mir-Hossain Musavi. However, the fact that Abbasi was targeted and then later named to head the nuclear program raises questions about that theory.
Iran asked the United Nations Security Council to condemn the latest killing. The Council did nothing. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, however, issued a personal statement saying assassination “is not acceptable.”
Many Western commentators have suggested the Islamic Republic is in a poor position for condemning assassinations of its people when it has often resorted to assassination to eliminate opponents, such as Shahpour Bakhtiar, the last prime minister before the revolution.
In November, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution condemning the alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington. That overwhelming vote coupled with the silence over Roshan’s killing highlights the standing of the Islamic Republic in the world today.