Iran Suspects Israel Poisoned Its Top Scientists
Iran suspects Israel has poisoned two of its top scientists, the latest to die in an escalating shadow war between the two bitter rivals.
Ayoub Entezari, 35, and Kamran Aghamolaei, 31, died just days apart in similar circumstances in towns more than 300 miles apart in central and southern Iran.
Entezari, a graduate from a top technical university, is thought to have worked on the country’s missile and drone programmes while Aghamolaei was a PhD geology student in Tehran, a field of study sometimes linked to the nuclear programme.
It comes after four Revolutionary Guards soldiers died in mysterious circumstances over the course of three weeks, and amid warnings from Israel that Iran is closer than ever to developing a nuclear weapon as negotiations to rein in Tehran falter.
Entezari is said to have fallen ill in late May shortly after attending a dinner organised by a long-term acquaintance in his home town of Yazd, central Iran.
He was taken to an intensive care unit at a local hospital as his symptoms worsened before he died on May 31, the New York Times reported.
The acquaintance who organised the dinner is now missing and being hunted by authorities, an Iranian official told the newspaper.
Entezari’s death was reported by local officials who initially called him a ‘martyr’ and said his death was an act of ‘biological terror’.
A tribute from his university described him as an ‘aerospace engineer’, while images from 2019 showed him presenting then-President Hassan Rouhani with turbines of the kind used in missiles and drones at a factory in his home city.
But officials later retracted the statement about him being a martyr and the local prosecutor denied he was an engineer, calling him ‘an ordinary employee of an industrial company.’
Aghamolaei, meanwhile, fell ill in late May shortly after returning from a business trip to Tabriz, in northern Iran, with ‘intense’ nausea and diarrhoea.
He was taken to hospital where his symptoms gradually worsened until he suffered organ failure and died on June 2.
The president of Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran, where Aghamolaei studied, issued a statement confirming his death and calling him a PhD student.
An online profile lists Aghamolaei as a student of economic geology. Though the field encompasses a wide range of studies, it is sometimes linked to mining nuclear material or identifying sites suitable for tests.
An Iranian official who spoke to the Times said, privately, Tehran believes both of them were poisoned by toxins added to their food.
It comes off the back of a series of deaths in Iran that echo previous assassinations linked to Israel, including of top Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp officers.
Sayad Khodayee and Ali Esmaelzadeh, both IRGC colonels, died in Tehran on May 22 and May 28 – the first after being shot by motorbike riders outside his home and the second in a mysterious fall from his balcony.
Though details about both men are sparse, Khodayee’s funeral was attended by thousands including top IRGC commanders – hinting at his importance.
Both men are thought to have served in the elite Quds Force in the same unit – Unit 840 – which carries out kidnappings and assassinations outside Iran, the Times of Israel reported.
Meanwhile Ali Kamani and Mohammad Abdous, who also belonged to the IRGC, died last weekend in separate incidents in Iran that have also been deemed suspicious.
Kamani, believed to be a Second Lieutenant, was said to have died in a ‘car accident’ in the province of Markazi – home to Iran’s heavy water reactor, which is a key nuclear facility.
Meanwhile Abdous, whose rank and role in the IRGC is not clear, was said to have died ‘on a mission’ in Semnan – where Iranian satellite test facilities are located.
Source: DailyMail
