Conference opens in Tehran to address US, Israeli assassinations of scientists

Iran has launched the “Rising of the Wise against Sophicide” conference to condemn a campaign of targeted assassinations of scientists by the US and Israel.

Mohammad-Javad Larijani, head of Iran’s Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences and chairman of the “Rising of the wise against sophicide” conference, said Thursday the event aims to raise global awareness about the threats faced by scientists in Iran and other countries.

“This conference was organized quickly to address the ongoing situation related to science and knowledge,” Larijani said in his opening remarks. “We are confronted with a new phenomenon called scientific terrorism.”

Larijani referenced a recent 12-day war between Iran, Israel, and the United States, during which he said several Iranian nuclear scientists and military personnel were assassinated.

He said the Israeli and US governments are openly carrying out these killings, marking a shift from previous covert operations.

“The regimes based in Washington and Tel Aviv have revealed a new approach — that if they dislike a scientist, they can assassinate them by any means,” Larijani said.

On June 13, Israel launched a blatant and unprovoked act of aggression against Iran, assassinating many high-ranking military commanders, nuclear scientists, and ordinary civilians. More than a week later, the US entered the war by bombing three Iranian nuclear sites.

In response, the Iranian Armed Forces targeted strategic sites across the occupied territories as well as the al-Udeid air base in Qatar, the largest American military base in West Asia.

On June 24, Iran, through its successful retaliatory operations against both the Israeli regime and the US, managed to impose a halt to the illegal assault.

Larijani stated that during the war, prominent scientists were killed even while with their families, under the false pretext of developing atomic weapons. He emphasized that, according to a fatwa issued by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the production of nuclear weapons is strictly forbidden in Iran.

Profiles: Prominent Iranian nuclear scientists assassinated in latest Israeli aggression

Many prominent Iranian nuclear scientists, who made significant contributions to the country’s peaceful nuclear program, were assassinated in the latest Israeli aggression.

Western countries, he said, are trying to monopolize scientific knowledge to maintain global dominance, suggesting that the rise of Iran and other nations threatens this hegemony.

“They seek to monopolize science and believe that scientific knowledge is not suitable for certain nations,” Larijani said. “The emergence of the Islamic Republic has significant implications for this.”

Larijani called for greater protection of scientists worldwide and stressed the importance of continuing such conferences to raise awareness about the risks faced by the scientific community.

“We must expand our own scientific ethics. Scientists should not be deprived or threatened. Conferences like this must continue to be held. Scientists from around the world will certainly benefit from this awareness-raising.” 

Larijani has issued a powerful global appeal against "sophicide", a dangerous new reality where states claim it is legitimate to assassinate scientists abroad to maintain scientific dominance and suppress other nations’ progress.

Expanding on the reasons behind holding the conference, Larijani explained that perpetrators use advanced weaponry and weaponize access to private data, transforming everyday devices into instruments of assassination.

This, he said in a statement published on the website of the conference, exposes the hypocrisy of powers that have long claimed to uphold freedom of information and technological progress while secretly undermining them.

Larijani pointed to the assassination of the president of West Asia’s premier university and ten colleagues in a distant aerial strike on their home, calling it a campaign of intellectual extermination.

He described the current global order as moribund and lethal and urged principled academics to forge a new intellectual alliance. He stressed that strategic philosophical discourse and the active engagement of the academic community are crucial to mobilizing global consensus against this tyrannical system.

He further criticized the exploitation of telecommunications and encrypted networks by hegemonic powers to harvest confidential data and carry out targeted killings, exposing the illegitimacy of the current order.

Larijani highlighted the stranglehold on advanced technologies such as AI, microelectronics, and quantum computing, which are leveraged for global coercion and sanctions.

He called on scholars to lead the construction of a secure, sovereign technological ecosystem, ending monopoly and exploitation by superpowers.

This movement could reinvigorate universities, shift political and technological discourse back to the academy, and represent a demand for a just and peaceful path of development, Larijani said.

Its success depends on sustained international collaboration, impactful symposia with global scholars, and traction in political and media arenas, he added.

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