Killing of Iranian N-scientists must be brought up in P5+1 talks

A senior Iranian lawmaker says the issue of the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists should be included in the agenda of the Saturday talks between Iran and the P5+1. “Our first question in the talks should be about the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists and the measures adopted by countries such as the US, France, Britain and Germany, because they have made no remarks [on the issue], not even a condemnation,” said Deputy Chairman of Iran’s Majlis Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy Ismail Kowsari on Saturday. On January 11, Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was killed in an assassination attack in central Tehran. According to reports, Ahmadi Roshan had earlier met International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors, a fact which indicates that the IAEA leaked information about Iran's nuclear facilities and scientists. In November 2010, Majid Shahriari, another Iranian scientist, was killed in a terrorist attack and Dr. Fereydoun Abbasi, the current head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, was injured in a separate terrorist incident. Professor Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, another scholar at the Tehran University, was also assassinated by a booby-trapped motorbike in the Iranian capital in January 2010. “The Islamic Republic will in no way accept the West’s prescription for the nuclear case,” Kowsari said, reaffirming Tehran’s determination to achieve mastery in nuclear energy technology. The remarks come as Iran and the P5+1 comprising Russia, China, Britain, France, the US plus Germany are scheduled to resume a fresh round of multifaceted talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Saturday. The Iranian delegation, headed by secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, arrived in Istanbul Friday morning. Iran and the P5+1 have agreed to hold the first round of their fresh multifaceted talks in Istanbul and conduct the second round of the negotiations in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, with the date for the talks in Baghdad to be announced at the end of the Istanbul meeting. Tehran and the P5+1 have held two rounds of talks, one in Geneva in December 2010 and another in Istanbul in January 2011. Iran has repeatedly declared that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is entitled to the peaceful use of nuclear technology.