"Enemies of Iran attempted to kill President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with high-intensity X-ray radiation during his recent trip to Italy," Iran's former ambassador in Rome, Abolfazi Zohrevand, said on Monday.
Ahmadinejad attended a global summit on food at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's Rome headquarters in early June.
"On the eve of the [Iranian] president's visit to Rome, we checked the radiation levels in his temporary residence," Abolfazi Zohrevand told Iran's IRNA news agency.
"We found out that the radiation was higher than normal and its intensity was rapidly increasing," he said, adding that several devices were used to avoid potential error in readings, but they all showed the same results.
"A day before Ahmadinejad's arrival in Rome, I checked and found out that the (security) X-ray machines installed gave off too powerful radiation. It measured over 900 instead of 300 as normal," Zohrevand told Iran's IRNA news agency.
"We changed the machine, thinking that it was faulty, but realized the rays were being remotely controlled," he said.
"Bearing in mind that rays of over 1,500 are extremely dangerous to human life, this makes us think there was a plot," Zohrevand continued.
Former ambassador would not report any other details of the unsuccessful assassination attempt. According to him, the additional information including the one revealing the masterminds, will be publicized "in its proper time".
Last week Italian media reported referring to Iran's presidential adviser Ali Zabihi that the plotters were masterminding an assassination attempt against Ahmadinejad during his visit to Italy.
In mid-June Ahmadinejad himself mentioned another assassination attempt during his March visit to Baghdad and said only changes to his schedule had foiled the plot. Head of the Iranian government also pledged to provide proof that the United States was behind an attempt on his life in early March in Baghdad.
Kavkaz Center
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