TEHRAN, Jan 11: An Iranian nuclear scientist was killed by a car bomb on Wednesday that Tehran immediately blamed on Israel and Washington, worsening a tense international stand-off over its atomic programme.

Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi told state television the murder of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan would not stop Iran making “progress” in its nuclear activities.

Iranian officials noted the assassination method — two men on a motorbike attaching a magnetic bomb to the target’s vehicle — was similar to that used in the killings of three other scientists over the past two years.

Iran’s parliament erupted with yells of “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” after Wednesday’s attack.

Roshan, 32, died immediately in the blast outside a university campus in east Tehran. His driver/bodyguard later died of his wounds, the Fars and ILNA news agencies reported. A third occupant of the Peugeot 405 was wounded and in hospital.

Ahmadi Roshan was a deputy director at Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility, according to the website of the university he graduated from a decade ago, Sharif University.

He was also an academic and member of the Basij militia controlled by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the Basij said in a statement. The scientist specialised in making polymeric membranes to separate gas.

Iran uses a gas separation method to enrich its uranium.

Iranian media and officials accused the International Atomic Energy Agency of having passed Roshan’s name to Israeli and US intelligence. According to Mehr news agency, “IAEA inspectors met him recently”.

Iran’s atomic energy organisation issued a statement, quoted by the country’s Arabic-language broadcaster Al-Alam, confirming Ahmadi Roshan “was working in the nuclear industry”. It said “the futile actions by the criminal Israeli regime and America will not disrupt the path the Iranian people have chosen” and nuclear activities will continue.

The foreign ministry also blamed Israel and the United States.

Vice President Rahimi, in charge while President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wraps up a Latin America tour, added: “They (Israel and the United States) should know that Iranian scientists are more determined than ever in striding towards Iran’s progress.” In Israel, a senior official said he was unaware who carried out what he called an act of “revenge”. “I don’t know who took revenge on the Iranian scientist, but I am definitely not shedding a tear,” military spokesman Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai wrote on his official Facebook page.

Media in Israel and the United States gave prominent play to the car bombing, although there was no immediate official reaction from Washington.

Israeli outlets relayed comments by Israel’s military chief of staff, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, to MPs on Tuesday saying 2012 was to be “a critical year” given Iran’s nuclear drive, international pressure — “and things which happen to them (the Iranians) in an unnatural way”. Three other Iranian scientists were killed in 2010 and 2011 when their cars blew up in similar circumstances. At least two of the scientists had also been working on nuclear activities.

The current head of Iran’s atomic energy organisation, Fereydoun Abbasi, escaped another such attempt in November 2010, getting out of his car with his wife just before the attached bomb exploded.

Those attacks were viewed by Iranian officials as assassination operations carried out by Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, possibly with help from US counterparts.—AFP