Blasts kill Iran nuclear scientist, wound another

AFP— Twin blasts in Iran’s capital killed a nuclear scientist and wounded another on Monday, said state media reports that promptly blamed Israeli agents on motorbikes of attaching the bombs to their cars.

"In a criminal terrorist act, the agents of the Zionist regime attacked two prominent university professors who were on their way to work," the website of Iran’s state television network reported, referring to arch-foe Israel.

"Dr. Majid Shahriari was killed and his wife was injured. Dr. Fereydoon Abbasi and his wife were injured," the report said.

Fars news agency said the scientists were targeted in two different locations by men on motorcycles who approached their vehicles and attached bombs to their cars.

Shahriari was a member of the nuclear engineering department of Shahid Beheshti University in northern Tehran, according to the official IRNA news agency.

Abbasi held a PhD in nuclear physics and did nuclear research at the defence ministry, the hardline news website Mashreghnews said.

The website said Abbasi, 52, was "one of the few specialists who can separate isotopes" and was "member of the Revolutionary Guards since the revolution" in 1979.

"The issue of the assassination of two Shahid Beheshti University professors is currently under investigation and its results will be announced," deputy Tehran governor Safar Ali Baratlu told ISNA news agency.

"These assassinations were not personal and I think these assassinations are different from the previous assassinations, but we are still investigating it," he said.

The reported attacks came a day after the top US military officer said the United States, which is suspicious of Iran’s nuclear drive, was weighing military options in the face of Tehran’s announcement it had a nuclear power plant up and running.

"We’ve actually been thinking about military options for a significant period of time," Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff said in an interview with CNN. Continued...

Iran May Have Missiles from North Korea, Cables Posted by WikiLeaks Show

BloomBerg--Iran obtained 19 advanced missiles from North Korea, potentially giving the Islamic nation the capability of attacking Moscow and cities in Western Europe, according to embassy cables posted by WikiLeaks.org and provided to the New York Times.

U.S. officials denounced the release, coming on the eve of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s departure for a security conference in the Persian Gulf, as jeopardizing U.S. ties with foreign governments and endangering individuals. WikiLeaks began posting the cables yesterday.

The 19 North Korean BM-25 missiles, based on a Russian design known as the R-27, might give Iran the “building blocks” for producing long-range missiles, according to a Feb. 24 cable posted on WikiLeaks. The cable didn’t provide specific evidence, according to the Times, which agreed not to publish the document at the Obama administration’s request.

“North Korea and Iran have had a decades-long missile relationship and also most likely a nuclear relationship,” said Bruce Klingner, an analyst at the Heritage Foundation in Washington and former chief of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Korea branch. “The leaking of the classified documents provides a greater sense of confidence” for analysis conducted previously by outside experts and most recently
illustrated in photos from a North Korean parade, he said. Continued…

Lebanese PM hails Iran’s auto industry

Press TV--Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has paid a visit to Iran Khodro Company (IKCO), lauding Iran’s progress in the auto industry

Hariri toured the leading Iranian automaker company on Sunday and said Iran’s achievements in the auto manufacturing industry are a source of pride and glory for both Iranian and Lebanese peoples.

“We have agreed with Iran Khodro Industrial Group to set up a committee to examine ways for further collaboration,” he said.

IKCO Managing Director Javad Najmoddin said his company is willing to supply Lebanon with IKCO products, noting that by establishing a joint committee the automaker would be able to enter the Lebanese market.

Hariri, who was accompanied by six of his ministers, visited Peugeot 206’s body and engine assembly lines.

Najmoddin presented Hariri a Samand Soren sedan.

The IKCO managing director also said that over 5,000 Peugeot 206 SD and Peugeot 206 Hatchback have been exported to Lebanon so far.

He underlined that his company currently exports its products to 30 countries and said the company has production plants in six countries.

“Syria, Venezuela, Belarus, Egypt, Senegal and Azerbaijan are countries where Iran Khodro manufactures cars. The Senegal plant procures the needs of the African market and the Belarus plant meets demands of the Commonwealth of Independent States,” he said.