Iran: UN, Israel cooperated in attack on nuke scientists

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the United Nations on Wednesday of complicity in the murder of a nuclear scientist, days before talks aimed at defusing a nuclear stand-off.

Scientist Majid Shahriyari, killed in a bomb attack on his car, was buried on in a funeral attended by Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, who will meet the European Union's foreign affairs chief on Dec. 6-7 for talks.

No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing, nor another similar attack on the same day, which Tehran has blamed on countries seeking to stop the nuclear program they fear is aimed at making a bomb.

"Committing terrorist acts shows well that you do not have the intention to negotiate, but you want to show hostility towards the Iranian nation," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the semi-official ILNA news agency.

"In these kinds of terrorist acts, undoubtedly the United Nations is in cahoots with Zionists."

A separate car bomb at around the same time on Monday as the one that killed Shahriyari, wounded another nuclear scientist, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, who is personally subject to UN sanctions because of what Western officials said is his involvement in suspected nuclear weapons research.

Meanwhile, Iran said Wednesday it will increase security for its nuclear scientists. Iranian state media said the attacks on its scientists Monday were part of a Western campaign to sabotage its nuclear program.

According to Iran, that campaign included the abduction of Iranian scientists, the sale of faulty equipment and the planting of a destructive computer worm known as Stuxnet, which briefly brought Iran's uranium enrichment activity to a halt last month.

AP contributed to the story

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