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The Pentagon has launched the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier in the Gulf in recent days, ensuring that its return to the region was not caused by “any threat” arising after the assassination of the Iranian nuclear scientist, but is linked to the withdrawal of troops. Americans from.
“The return of the Nimitz Air Force team has not posed a specific threat,” said frigate commander Rebecca Rebaric, spokeswoman for the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, which covers the entire Middle East.
Consequently, the presence of the aircraft carrier in the Gulf is not linked to the murder of Mohsen Fahrizadeh. “The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz returned to the Fifth Fleet area of responsibility on November 25,” the spokeswoman insisted.
The American aircraft carrier was in the Strait of Hormuz in September, a strategic channel that Iran systematically threatens to close before heading to the Pacific.
In a separate statement, the Pentagon linked the development of the aircraft carrier to the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, announced on November 18 by Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller.
About 2,000 troops will leave Afghanistan and 500 from Iraq by January 15, leaving 2,500 US troops in each country.
“The Pentagon will continue to defend the security of its forces as long as they continue to protect Americans and our interests abroad,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
“During this change of positions, the ministry wisely decided to have additional defense capabilities in the area to deal with any eventuality.”
Effervescence in Iran
Iran is in crisis after the assassination of a prominent nuclear scientist long suspected in the West of being the “mastermind” of a secret nuclear weapons program.
Mohsen Fahrizadeh, a former officer in the Revolutionary Guard, was killed in his car. A car bomb had exploded at an Iraqi police recruitment center in Kisak, west of Tehran.
Photographs that have seen the light can be seen from the bullet holes in the Iranian scientist’s windshield and a pool of blood.
The Islamic Republic’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, “showed” Israel behind the assassination. “Terrorists have killed a prominent Iranian scientist today. This cowardice, with serious hints of Israel’s role, shows the desperate pro-war psychosis of the perpetrators.” Iran is calling on the international community, and especially the EU , to stop the shameful tactics of the two measures and stations and condemn this act of state terrorism. “
For his part, the chief of Iran’s General Staff, General Mohammad Bagheri, warned that “a terrible revenge” awaited those responsible for the murder.
“Terrorist organizations and the perpetrators and perpetrators of this heinous attack must know that a terrible revenge awaits them,” Bagheri wrote on Twitter. The general called the death of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fahrizadeh a “hard and bitter blow”, assuring that the Iranians “will not rest until we persecute and punish” those responsible.
Israel denies participation
Tel Aviv, however, declined to comment on the death of the Iranian scientist, who had been targeted by Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Remember his name!” He had said at a press conference when he presented the evidence that Israel claimed showed that Tehran is continuing its efforts to build nuclear weapons.
In fact, “Netanyahu’s office will not comment on the information about the attack,” an official from the prime minister’s office told Reuters.
The conjuncture
The assassination of the Iranian scientist comes amid renewed concern over an increase in the enrichment of uranium produced by the country. Enriched uranium is vital for both nuclear power generation and military nuclear weapons.
An agreement signed in 2015 with six world powers had set limits on its production, but since President Donald Trump abandoned the agreement in 2018, Iran would have violated its terms.
Joe Biden has vowed to reconsider the issue with Iran when he assumes the US presidency in January, despite long-standing opposition from Israel.
How the attack took place
A statement from Iran’s Defense Ministry said: “Armed terrorists attacked a vehicle carrying Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, head of the ministry’s research and innovation agency.”
After a shootout between the terrorists and their bodyguards, Mr. Fakhrizadeh was seriously injured and taken to hospital. “Unfortunately, the medical team’s attempts to save him were unsuccessful and he died a few minutes ago.”
Who was Mohsen Fahrizadeh?
According to Reuters, Western officials and experts believe Fajrizadeh played a key role in Iran’s previous efforts to engineer a nuclear warhead under the guise of a civilian uranium enrichment program.
He lived in the shadows in high security conditions and was never available to communicate with UN nuclear investigators. Fahrizadeh rarely, if ever, appeared in public, and few outside of Iran know for sure what he was like, and even fewer have.
He is credited with being the only Iranian scientist named in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) 2015 “Final Assessment” with open questions about Iran’s nuclear program and whether it aimed to develop a bomb.
In fact, a senior source in Iran described Fakhrizadeh as an expert who was a national “advantage”.
Israel has described the plan (also known as the AMAD plan) as Iran’s covert nuclear weapons program and says it has extracted a large part of the country’s nuclear “archive” detailing these activities.
In 2018, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, during an interview with Israeli channel Kan, noted that Fahrizadeh is likely to be a target. “I know Fakhrizadeh well. You don’t know how well I know him.” If I had met him on the street, I probably would have recognized him, “Olmert said.
“He has no immunity, he had no immunity and I don’t think he will have it.”
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