Saturday, October 5

Iran’s top nuclear scientist shot dead


 

 

Iran has vowed retaliation after the architect of its nuclear programme was assassinated on a highway near Tehran, in a major escalation of tensions that risks placing the Middle East on a new war footing.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was ambushed with explosives and machine gun fire in the town of Absard, 70km (44 miles) east of Tehran.

Efforts to resuscitate him in hospital failed. His bodyguard and family members were also wounded.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the Iranian foreign minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said Israel was likely to blame, and an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vowed retaliation. We will strike as thunder at the killers of this oppressed martyr and will make them regret their action, tweeted Hossein Dehghan.

The killing was seen inside Iran as being as grave as the assassination by US forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Qassem Soleimani in January.

Iranian state TV carried pictures of the bloodstained site of the attack, which will be seen as a massive intelligence failure by Iran. Photos and video shared online showed a Nissan sedan with bullet holes in the windshield and blood pooled on the road. The car appeared to have been struck from two directions. Security forces quickly blocked off the road where the attack occurred.

Iran, which suffered a record number of new coronavirus infections on Friday, has been on a high security alert, amid reports that Israeli intelligence and secret service have been given the green light to mount attacks on its nuclear installations before Donald Trump stands down as president.

Many Iranian officials believe Trump, in conjunction with Israel and Saudi Arabia, is determined to weaken the chances of diplomacy by antagonising Iran before the US handover of power on 20 January.

Israel will face accusations that it is using the final weeks of the Trump administration to try to provoke Iran in the hope of closing off any chance of reconciliation between Tehran and the incoming US administration led by Joe Biden.

The Iranian ministry of defence confirmed Fakhrizadeh’s death in a statement. During the clash between his security team and the terrorists, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was seriously injured and taken to hospital, it said. Unfortunately, the medical team did not succeed in reviving him, and a few minutes ago, this manager and scientist, after years of effort and struggle, achieved a high degree of martyrdom.

Zarif immediately called on European leaders to distance themselves from what he saw as Israel’s actions. Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today, he tweeted. This cowardice with serious indications of Israeli role shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators. Iran calls on international community and especially EU to end their shameful double standards & condemn this act of state terror.