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On Friday, it was the weekend in Iran, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and his wife wanted to visit their in-laws. He was traveling in his black Nissan on the way to the relatives’ villa in the small town of Absard, about 60 kilometers east of Tehran, according to Iranian media.
His bodyguards were behind him. An empty Nissan was parked on the street in front of them. A Hyundai with four people waited a little longer on the other side of the street. Fakhrizadeh’s assassins wanted the noose to surround him there.
“It was like in a movie,” writes Javad Mogouyi, a documentary maker for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on social media. According to Mogouyi, an automatic machine gun was installed in the empty Nissan. He fired as Fakhrizadeh’s car approached.
Fakhrizadeh’s column stopped, the scientist came out and received a blow to the arms and legs, Mogouyi writes. Suddenly the empty Nissan exploded with a remote start.
The four men waiting in the Hyundai immediately opened fire on Fakhrizadeh and his bodyguards. In addition, they fired eight other men who suddenly appeared on four motorcycles, a total of twelve shooters. Fakhrizadeh was beaten several times and died shortly after in hospital. His wife survived injured.
“A strike team of twelve people needs at least 50 people”
Fakhrizadeh’s assassination deals a severe blow to the Iranian regime. Not only does he lose his mind to his nuclear program, but it was also proven: all twelve shooters were able to escape, and there are few useful clues for them so far.
The empty Nissan is said to be registered to an owner who has not lived in Iran for a long time; Iranian media said the seized weapons parts were of Israeli design. Also, the cameras on the street should not have worked at the time of the crime.
“A twelve-person strike team needs at least 50 people,” revolutionary guard Javad Mogouyi speculates of potential sponsors. How can such a large group operate undetected in Iran’s capital and also know exactly the planning of the family weekend from Iran’s most important nuclear scientist?
The Iranian regime blames Israel for the crime. And indeed there are some indications in favor of it.
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Reason: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in 2018 that Fakhrizadeh’s name should be remembered, a threat that is not very well hidden. The Netanyahu government benefits the most from this fact: Iran’s nuclear research program is unlikely to be severely affected. But Tehran is now ashamed and unsure: to what extent do spies penetrate its innermost apparatus?
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Capacity: It takes a lot of experience and well-placed agents to carry out such a complicated attack in the middle of enemy territory. The Mossad has already shown several times that it is capable of doing this in Iran, most recently this year with acts of sabotage against Iran’s nuclear facilities and the assassination of an Al Qaeda terrorist in the middle of Tehran, probably at the request of Washington. Furthermore, Mossad assassinated several nuclear scientists in Iran years ago.
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Confession: There is no clear admission that this contradicts Israeli practice. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave hints over the weekend: He bragged about his successes in recent days, adding that he couldn’t name a few.
Was the United States government involved in the attack?
One can only speculate on this. Washington may have been informed ahead of time, especially since US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was visiting Israel. From the perspective of the US administration of Donald Trump, the assassination of Fakhrizadeh should pose an acceptable risk:
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It is a blatant provocation and cannot be justified under international law.
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But so far Trump has cared little about those aspects, not even when senior Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was assassinated in January.
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Furthermore, it would have been much more serious if Israel had launched a direct military strike against Iran’s nuclear program.
For Joe Biden’s next US administration, however, the fact is fatal: the next president must return to the negotiating table with Iran as soon as possible if he still wants to save the international nuclear deal with Iran.
This would require American courtesy and confidence-building measures: a targeted assassination and possible hostile reactions from Iran make this difficult undertaking even more difficult.
