TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – In an opinion piece published Sunday by a hard-line Iranian newspaper, Iran has called for an attack on the Israeli port city of Haifa if Israel established a military nuclear program to assassinate the Islamic Republic in the early 2000s. .
The hard-line Kayhan newspaper has long argued for aggressive retaliation for operations targeting Iran, although Sunday’s opinion went further, suggesting that any attack is carried out in a way that destroys facilities and “causes heavy human casualties.”
Israel, suspected of killing Iranian nuclear scientists over the past decade, has not commented on the shameless assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. Military-style offensive on Friday in the seam of Tehran According to reports, a truck bomb exploded and gunmen opened fire on the scientist, killing him and a bodyguard.
U.S. intelligence agencies and UN nuclear inspectors say Fakhrizadeh’s disbanded organized military nuclear program was disbanded in 2003, but Israeli suspicions about Tehran’s nuclear program and its involvement have never ceased.
Kahn published a passage written by Iranian analyst Sadullah Zarei, who argued Iran’s earlier response to a suspected Israeli airstrike that killed Revolutionary Guards soldiers in Syria was not far enough to stop Israel. He said the attack on Haifa needed to be more intense than Iran’s ballistic missile attack on American troops in Iraq after the US drone strike in Baghdad in January.
Attacking the Israeli city of Haifa and killing a large number of people “will surely lead to chaos, because the United States and the Israeli regime and its agents are in no way willing to take part in the war and military confrontation,” Zare wrote.
Kehan is a small circulating newspaper in Iran, with its editor-in-chief, Hussein Shariatmadari, appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and described as his adviser in the past.
Haifa in the Mediterranean has been threatened in the past by Iran and its pro-Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.
Such a strike would immediately avenge Israel and provoke widespread conflict throughout the Middle East. While Iran has never directly targeted an Israeli city, it has in the past carried out attacks targeting foreign Israeli interests, including the killing of its scientists, such as the three Iranians recently released in Thailand in exchange for detained British-Australian Australian education..
Israel is also widely believed to have its own nuclear weapons.
A closed-door hearing on Fakhrizadeh’s assassination was held in the Iranian parliament on Friday. The speaker of parliament, Mohammad Bakr Ghalibaf, then said that Iran’s enemies should mourn his death.
In a broadcast on Iranian state radio, he said he had no regrets other than a harsh response from the criminal enemy.
In the public session of the legislators they saw him chanting: “Death to America!” And “Death to Israel!”
They also began reviewing a bill that would stop inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Following the country’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, the nuclear watchdog has given an unprecedented, real-time look at Iran’s civilian nuclear program.
Trump’s unilateral 2018 agreement with the U.S. The deal has been unveiled since the move. The Iranian civilian nuclear program has since continued its experiments and is now enriching the growing uranium stockpile to 4.5 ..% purity.
It is still below 90% of the weapons-grade level, although experts warn that Iran now has enough uranium to convert into fuel for at least two atomic bombs, if it chooses to pursue it. The report states that the proposed bill requires Iran’s civilian nuclear program to enrich at least 120 kilograms (265 pounds) of uranium to 20% – a short technical step of 90%.
Iran’s 290-seat parliament is dominated by hardliners who probably. This will support the bill. It will eventually have to be approved by Iran’s Guardian Council. Khamenei has also given a final vote on all matters of the state.
Khamenei has called Fakhrizadeh “the country’s leading and most respected nuclear and defense scientist” and called for a “definite punishment” for those behind the killings without disclosure.
Fakhrizadeh led Iran’s so-called Amad program, which Israel and the West have accused of taking military action in view of the possibility of building a nuclear weapon. The IAEA says the “structured program” ended in 2003. U.S. intelligence agencies agreed with the assessment in a 2007 report.
Israel claims that Iran still intends to develop a nuclear weapon. He argues that Iran’s ballistic missile program and other research could help build bombs if pursued – especially in accordance with the provisions of the 2015 nuclear deal termination. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful and has no plans to build a nuclear bomb.
Amos Yedlin, a one-time head of Israel’s military intelligence service and now director of the National Security Studies Institute at Tel Aviv University, alleged that Fakhrizadeh “carried out all the covert weapons activities of the program.”
Yadav said the loss of his life “cannot be measured because no one knows the scope and depth of what the Iranians are secretly doing.” “But there is no doubt that he was the main source of authority, knowledge and organization for this program.”
The assassination of Fakhri Zadeh complicates plans for President-elect Joe Biden, who has said his administration will consider re-entering Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers. The risk of open conflict in the last week of President Donald Trump’s office has also increased, as any repercussions provoke a reaction from the U.S. military, Yadlin said.
“I urge the authorities to keep their mouths shut and not leak anything. He has already said a lot, “he said, adding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had told his supporters that he would not be able to discuss everything he did last week.
“Any further evidence to help the Iranians decide to take revenge on Israel is a mistake,” Yadav said.
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Gambler reports from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Authors of the Associated Press in Jerusalem, Joseph Kruss and Joseph Federm contributed to this report.
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