Mohammad Javad Larijani made the remarks at the “Scholars Rise Against Sophicide” conference, held in Tehran on Thursday.
The event, attended by prominent domestic and international academics, aimed to expose attacks on scientists and highlight threats facing researchers globally.
Larijani opened his speech by commemorating the martyrs of the 12-day war of aggression imposed by Israel and the US on Iran in June, warning that the regimes in Washington and Tel Aviv have now openly revealed a sinister method.
“If they dislike a scientist, they can assassinate them by any means,” he said, adding that while such killings, including the murder of Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, had previously been secret, they are now public.
Larijani cited the 12-day war as a clear example, saying that scientists were targeted even while with their families, under the pretext of preventing the development of nuclear weapons—despite Iran having prohibited bomb-making under a fatwa issued by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.
Larijani also denounced the Western monopoly over science, citing the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as a tool to restrict access to scientific knowledge. “Science is considered suitable only for some nations,” he said, “because maintaining dominance requires it.”
He also stressed the importance of ethical scientific practice, urging that scientists should not be deprived of their work or threatened in any way.