of an Iranian scientist last month, although almost everyone else around the world is blaming Israel.
Daryoush Rezai-nejad, 35 was shot dead on a Tehran street July 23. Two men on a motorcycle pulled up near a crowd of parents waiting outside a nursery school for their children to emerge. The motorcyclists shouted out Rezai-nejad’s name. When he turned around, they pumped five bullets into him and drove off.
The initial Iranian news accounts said Rezai-nejad was a nuclear scientist who was undoubtedly killed by Israeli or Western intelligence agencies to slow Iran’s nuclear program,
But Moslehi swiftly said Rezai-nejad had nothing to do with Iran’s nuclear program. Iranian news coverage soon dropped that description of him, but continued to focus on Israel as the culprit in his death, without explaining why Israel would wish to target a man 
who was merely a student, according to Moslehi.
Last week, Moslehi was asked if Israel was behind the killing. Moslehi said the investigation into the murder was still ongoing, “however, we have come to the conclusion that they [Israelis] have not been involved in that assassination.”
Moslehi did not provide a motive for the killing if Rezai-nejad was not involved in Iran’s nuclear program. However, the Associated Press has reported from Vienna that a former nuclear inspector with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told it Rezai-nejad was indeed working in Iran’s nuclear program and that he was one of those suspected by the IAEA of working on the actual building of a nuclear weapon.
The man told the AP that Rezai-nejad worked on a project to develop high-voltage switches, which are a key component of the trigger needed to set off a nuclear explosion. The AP said it was shown an abstract on such work dated three years ago and bearing the name of Daryoush Rezai-nejad as a co-author.
While Moslehi was insistent that Israel had no role in the murder, the German weekly newsmagazine Der Spiegel wrote the opposite, saying the killing was the first operation ordered by Tamir Pardo after he took over several weeks ago as the new chief of Mossad, one of Israel’s intelligence agencies.
There is some speculation that Moslehi is insistent on Israel’s innocence because the murder of yet another nuclear scientist by Israel would be a major embarrassment for the Intelligence Ministry and show it up as easily foiled by the Israelis.
In December 2009, a nuclear scientist, Masud-Ali Mohammadi, was killed by a remote control bomb planted by his car. After that, the Intelligence Ministry started provided protection for all major nuclear scientists. One measure was to have the men driven to and from their offices by trained Intelligence Ministry officers.
But last November, assassins following two such cars planted magnetic bombs on the sides of those cars only minutes apart as the vehicles were being driven at slow speed in heavy traffic. One scientist, Majid Shahriari, was killed; the other escaped when he realized what was happening and jumped out of the car seconds before the bomb exploded. That second man was Fereydun Abbasi, who was subsequently named the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
The Intelligence Ministry then said it was increasing security precautions. But Rezai-nejad was next gunned down in broad daylight.
There have been no public criticisms of the Intelligence Ministry for being a band of stumblebums outwitted repeatedly by Israel. But Moslehi may have detected such an undercurrent of comment and be responding to it by denying any Israeli involvement.
To have any impact, however, Moslehi is going to have to come up with an alternative theory and some arrests—say, of some loan sharks punishing Rezai-nejad for failing to pay back his debts.
Moslehi is putting that off by saying the investigation of the latest murder is still underway.
Meanwhile, if Israel is behind the four attacks in 20 months, it is undoubtedly plotting a fifth attack—not only to slow up Iran’s nuclear program, but also to cause maximum embarrassment for Moslehi and his ministry minions. Continuing assassinations might prompt a shake-up in the Intelligence Ministry that would diminish its effectiveness as well as prompt Iranian scientists to look for work in some safer field than nuclear science.