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There are “strong indications” that Israel was involved in the assassination of a top Iranian nuclear scientist, Iran’s foreign minister said.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was injured after gunmen fired at his car and later died in hospital, Iranian state media reported.
“Unfortunately, the medical team failed to revive him, and a few minutes ago, this manager and scientist achieved the high status of martyrdom after years of effort and struggle,” said a statement from the Iranian armed forces.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said: “The terrorists today assassinated an eminent Iranian scientist. This cowardice, with serious indications of the Israeli role, shows a desperate warmongering of the perpetrators.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif suggested Israel was behind the attack
Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami said the killing shows “the depth of the enemies’ hatred” towards the country.
He tweeted: “Iran calls on the international community, and especially the EU, to end its shameful double standards and condemn this act of state terror.”
Israel has long alleged that Fakhrizadeh had directed a military nuclear program in the early 2000s, but the country declined to comment following Friday’s news.
The attack occurred in Absard, a small town east of the capital Tehran, according to the semi-official Fars news agency, which is believed to be close to the Revolutionary Guard.
State television said that a truck with explosives hidden under a pile of wood exploded near a car carrying Mr. Fakhrizadeh.
Mr. Fakhrizadeh was reportedly in a car when several gunmen shot him
When the car stopped, at least five armed men got out and fired at the vehicle, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said.
Images and videos circulating online showed a Nissan saloon with bullet holes in the windshield and bloodstains on the road.
Those injured in the attack, including the nuclear scientist’s bodyguards, were later taken to a local hospital, the agency said.
A view shows the site of the attack that killed the Iranian scientist
While no group has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, Iranian media has noted the interest that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously shown in the nuclear scientist.
Netanyahu called him at a press conference in 2018 and said, “Remember that name,” referring to Fakhrizadeh.
Benjamin Netanyahu in front of a picture of Fakhrizadeh two years ago
Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the paramilitary guard in Iran, appeared to acknowledge the attack on Fakhrizadeh.
“Assassinating nuclear scientists is the most violent confrontation preventing us from reaching modern science,” he tweeted.
Meanwhile, Hossein Dehghan, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader and a presidential candidate in the 2021 Iran elections, issued a warning on Twitter.
“In the final days of their ally’s political life in the game, the Zionists seek to intensify and increase pressure on Iran to wage a full-blown war,” wrote Dehghan, who appears to be referring to President Donald Trump.
He added: “We will descend like lightning on the murderers of this downtrodden martyr and make them repent of their actions!”
Mr. Fakhrizadeh led Iran’s Amad program, which, according to Israel and the West, was a military operation seeking the viability of building a nuclear weapon.
He is also the only Iranian scientist mentioned in the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 2015 “final assessment” of open questions about Iran’s nuclear program and whether it aimed to develop a nuclear bomb.
Tehran has long insisted that its nuclear program is peaceful.
The IAEA claims that the Amad program was halted in 2003 and its inspectors now monitor Iranian nuclear sites as part of the country’s nuclear deal with world powers.
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