Editorial: Double standards Thursday, 12 January 2012 05:36

Yesterday, another Iranian nuclear scientist was killed. A cold-blooded, sinister murder in broad daylight in which Israel’s spy agency Mossad is the prime suspect. The assassination of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan came less than 24 hours after Israel’s military chief warned that Iran could face “unnatural” events this year. It follows the killing of other nuclear scientists in the past, including particle physicist Masoud Alimohammadi in January last year and explosions in its nuclear facilities.  

It’s unlikely that anyone would have doubts about the forces which are behind  these criminal acts. Iran’s beleaugured president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad is known to blame the West for anytthing that suits him, but he will be taken seriously when his administration blames Israel for the current incident.

“Ahmadinejad blames almost every national setback on the same culprits, but in this case there were no snorts of derision from the security analysts and intelligence experts in the west, but rather murmurs of assent,” a Guardian report said yesterday. Time magazine last week was given details of an elimination operation in Iran by a western intelligence expert who asserted that it “carried the signature of Israel’s Mossad”.

Mossad has developed an unbeatable knack for eleminating its enemies on foreign soil with the ease of an underworld don. It is widely believed to have killed scientists working on Iraq’s nuclear programme in the 1980s and killed a Hamas leader in Dubai, among other operations.

But the Israeli spy agency’s ongoing operation in Iran raises serious questions about Western complicity. Mossad has the open support of Washington in these operations, and the tacit support of other Western countries. But this wanton killing is at odds with the lofty policies the West has been espousing and will only tarnish its image. It’s one thing to oppose Iran’s nuclear programme and use internationally accepted means to stop it, but quite a heinous act to follow a policy of illegal, wanton killings of scientists.

Half of the blame for the killings goes to the Iranian authorities. If their nuclear scientists have become sitting ducks waiting to be killed when its enemy wants, it reflects poorly on its security establishment and the ability to protect its strategic asset -- the pool of scientific talent which is crucial for its nuclear programme. Mossad couldn’t have carried out this murder, and all the murders and explosions in the past, without cooperation from elements working inside the country, whether dissidents opposed to the government or unscrupulous citizens who have been lured by financail gains. The world will be watching whether more scientists will fall dead on Tehran’s streets and if the authorities learn their lessons, there will be no need to shed tears.