Iran blames US for killing

A SENIOR Iranian official yesterday blamed the United States and Israel for the killing of an Iranian scientist who, the deputy interior minister said, was not linked to Iran’s nuclear programme as reported by media.

Darioush Rezaie, 35, a university lecturer, was shot dead by gunmen in eastern Tehran on Saturday. Some media reports said Rezaie was a nuclear scientist but Deputy Interior Minister Safarali Baratlou said this was not true.

Several nuclear scientists have been assassinated in Iran in the last few years.