Iran's atomic energy chief said Wednesday at the funeral of a prominent nuclear scientist that his murder was a warning from the West.
Ali Akbar Salehi said "wicked people" wanted to show their "hideous side" in the run-up to next week's talks with world powers in Geneva on Iran's disputed nuclear program.
Scientist Majid Shahriari was killed and his wife wounded after attackers on motorcycles attached explosives to his car on Monday. A second nuclear physicist and his wife were wounded in a similar attack Monday.
Iranian officials blamed the U.S. and Israel. The Iranian Labor News Agency quotes President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council (the U.S., Britain, China, France and Russia) were linked to the attacks.
On Tuesday, the European Union announced Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili would met with EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton in Geneva next week. Ashton will represent the five permanent Security Council members and Germany, a group known as the P5+1.
Western nations have accused Iran of pursuing nuclear technology to make weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
