London (ANTARA News/Xinhua-OANA) - The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office issued a statement condemning the killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist on Wednesday and called for negotiated solution.

"We condemn the killing of civilians and we want a negotiated solution to concerns about Iran`s nuclear program," the British Foreign Office said in a short statement.

Local media reported earlier that Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, an Iranian national, was killed by a car bomb attack in Gol Nabi Street near the Ketabi square in northern Tehran on Wednesday morning.

The 32-year-old victim was the deputy chief of Natanz nuclear enrichment site`s commercial section, said the official IRNA news agency.

Iran`s semi-official Fars news agency reported that an assailant on a motorcycle stuck a bomb on the side of Ahmadi-Roshan`s car, killing the man and the driver in the car.

Earlier media reports identified Ahmadi-Roshan as university professor, and Fars said he was a "nuclear scientist."

It was not immediately clear if Ahmadi-Roshan was directly involved in Iran`s nuclear program.

Several Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated in recent years.

In January 2007, famous Iranian nuclear physicist Ardeshir Hoseynpur died from gas poisoning. Iran blamed this incident on the Israeli intelligence agency.

Hoseynpur, who was a key figure in Iran`s uranium enrichment program,won an importance prize for scientific research in 2004 in Iran and a prize in Iran`s international science festival in 2006.

In June 2009, Iran`s nuclear expert Shahram Amiri, who was a member of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and a researcher in a university in Tehran, disappeared during a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

Iran insisted that Amiri was kidnapped by American agents, and they strongly condemned the U.S. government.

After having disappeared for more than one year, Amiri returned to Tehran with Iran`s unremitting efforts in July 2010. (*)

Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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