UK Does Not Rule Out Israel Behind Killing Of Iranian Scientists

London, Dec 11, IRNA – Chair of Britain's intelligence watchdog does not entirely rule out the likelihood that Israel has been behind the series of assassinations of Iranian scientists but rejects that the US or UK were involved. “I chair the Intelligence and Security Committee and can categorically say the UK does not support assassinations. The US, on occasion, has given authority for that to happen, so have the Israelis,” Malcolm Rifkind said. “I don't think the Americans were, I've no idea about the Israelis,” said Rifkind, who is also a former Conservative foreign secretary and defense secretary during his current career as an MP. The intelligence watchdog is a committee of parliamentarians appointed by the prime minister to oversee and report back on the work of the Britain's intelligence machinery. Rifkind acknowledged that “mistakes were made (by Britain) in the past,” including its collusion with the 1953 CIA-led coup to overthrow the elected Iranian government of Mohammad Mosaddegh, saying his personal view is that this was a “foolish mistake.” He also castigated the Iraq war and the discredited intelligence evidence of WMD that made it “much more difficult” for the West in its confrontational policy to end Iran's legitimate civil nuclear program. “The main beneficiary of the Iraq war was the Iranian government. Iraq traditionally was a sort of buffer but that has now disappeared because of the stupid policy of the US and (for UK Prime Minister) Tony Blair's government,” he said. Rifkind was expressing his view along with Abbas Edalat, founder of the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII), about Iran's nuclear program and the possibility of another war in an article published by the Guardian's Comment is Free. “I think the international community has seen the catastrophic illegal invasion of Iraq and does not want that repeated. Do not advocate a military attack on Iran,” said Edalat an Iranian-British academic. He said “Western intelligence sources are feeding fabricated evidence to the IAEA, whose new head (Yukiya Amano) was disclosed by WikiLeaks to be a hardline supporter of the US.' Rifkind insisted that he 'did not advocate a military attack on Iran” but still accused Iran of “failing” to comply with the IAEA and UN Security Council resolutions passed after responsibility for Iran's case was taken away from the UN agency. Despite the discredited intelligence, he argued that “many of us who believe the Iraq war was disgraceful also believe Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons.”