Ayoub Entezari on the left side and Kamran Aghamolaei on the right. Click to see full-size image. Via Twitter.
Iran suspects that Israel has killed two of its scientists with poison, The New York Times reported on June 13, citing an Iranian official and two other people with ties to the government who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The two scientists were identified as Ayoub Entezari, an aeronautical engineer, and Kamran Aghamolaei, a geologist. Both men died within days of each other in two different Iranian cities after suddenly falling ill.
Entezari, 35, held a doctorate in aeronautics. He worked on projects related to missiles and airplane turbines for a government aerospace center in the city of Yazd, to the southeast of the capital, Tehran. The scientist developed symptoms of food poisoning after attending a dinner he was invited to in Yazd. He died on May 31. The host of the dinner party had disappeared and Iranian authorities were searching for him.
On the other hand, Aghamolaei, 31, was reported by Israeli and Iranian media to have worked at the Natanz uranium enrichment plant. However, his friends said that he worked for a private geological research company. The scientist became sick after returned to Tehran from a business trip to the northwestern city of Tabriz. He died on June 2.
According to The New York Times, Tehran suspects that the deaths were targeting killings by Israel, whose intelligence has a track record of assassinating Iranian scientists.
The deaths came following two accidents which were blamed on the Israeli intelligence. On May 22, Colonel Hassan Sayad Khodayari of Iran’s elite Quds Force was gunned down in the heart of Tehran. On May 25, an attack with suicide drones on the Parchin military complex, which is located to the southeast of the capital, claimed the life of mechanical engineer Ehsan Qadbeigi.
The Israeli intelligence has been waging a covert war to hinder Iran’s nuclear program and cripple the country’s military industry.
Israel grew frustrated in the last few months as a result of Iran’s strict stand in the nuclear talks with the US and its continuous weapons shipments to Hezbollah in Lebanon through Syria.
The recent accidents in Iran could lead to a serious military escalation in the Middle East. Iran has already vowed to respond to the assassination of Col. Khodayari. Tehran could take unprecedented measures if the deaths of Entezari and Aghamolaei were confirmed to be the result of targeted killing.
