Cairo: Many Egyptians see a common thread in the murder of an Iranian nuclear physics professor in Tehran and the deaths of several Egyptian atomic researchers killed in mysterious circumstances years ago.
"I have no doubt that Israel is behind his murder," Samir Hamed, an Egyptian physics researcher, said. "Israel is the first beneficiary from the disappearance of such a scientist."
Iran said yesterday that a bomb that killed the Tehran University professor was planted by "Zionist and American agents".
"One can see in preliminary investigations signs of evil by the triangle of the Zionist regime, America and their mercenaries in Iran, in this terrorist incident," Ramin Mehmanparast, foreign ministry spokesman, said. The US dismissed the allegations.
"Charges of US involvement are absurd," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in Washington.
Tehran's chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi also implicated the US and Israel, saying their respective intelligence services had a hand in the attack.
"His assassination reminds me of the mysterious deaths of several Egyptian scientists over the past 50 years," Hamed said. In June 1988, Saeed Badir, an Egyptian specialist in rocket technology, was found dead with his wrist slashed outside his house in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria after his return from Germany.
His wife accused the Mossad of being behind his death. Similar accusations, though unsubstantiated, were levelled at the Mossad for the killing of other Egyptian atomic scientists.
They include Samir Najuib, who was killed by a truck in Detroit, US, in August 1967. On June 13, 1980, Egyptian atomic researcher Yehia Al Mashad, who was responsible for Saddam Hussain's nuclear programme, was found dead in his hotel room in Paris.
No one was officially indicted in all those cases.
"Israel is likely behind the murder," Emad Jad, a political analyst at the Al Ahram Centre for Strategic Studies, said.
"Israel knows that such a scientist is important for Iran's nuclear programme. So it stands to benefit from his elimination. However, it is politically stupid of Iran to accuse the US," Jad told Gulf News. In his view, the US and other Western countries have their own means to lure top scientists from their home countries.
In 2007 Egypt unveiled a plan to launch a nuclear programme to help meet the country's increasing energy needs.
"There is a qualitative difference between Egypt's nuclear programme and that of Iran. Egypt's programme will be launched under the International Atomic Energy Agency, while that of Iran is internationally suspicious," he said. "Nonetheless, Egypt should take all necessary measures to protect its researchers involved in the programme and its facilities."
With inputs from agencies
