The body of Iran’s most senior nuclear scientist has been prepared for burial amid anger in Israel and the United States following his assassination last week.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh’s coffin, wrapped in the Iranian flag and topped with flowers, was taken to a Muslim temple for prayers and final homage, according to the country’s state news.
According to the Defense Ministry, his remains will be taken from the Imam Reza Temple to the Fatima Masumeh Temple in Qam, south of Tehran, and then to Imam Khomeini’s Temple in the capital.
Fakhrizadeh was killed in a military-style gun and bomb attack on a highway near the capital on Friday, raising tensions in the Middle East. A bodyguard was also killed in the attack.
The funeral will be attended by high-ranking military commanders and their families, the Iranian Defense Ministry said on its website.
Israel has not claimed responsibility or commented on the attack. However, Tehran has long blamed its arch-enemy Israel for killing many of its leading nuclear scientists, while Fakhrizadeh, considered the most senior, founded the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program in the early 2000s.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has vowed to “punish the perpetrators and those who commanded them”, warning Israel of possible military action in the coming days.
An opinion piece published by a radical Iranian newspaper on Sunday suggested that Iran should attack the northern Israeli port city of Haifa.
The Kaihan newspaper published an opinion piece by Iranian analyst Sadullah Zarei, who suggested a strike that destroys facilities and “causes heavy human casualties.”
He said such an attack is an effective deterrent, because “the United States and the Israeli regime and its agents are in no way prepared to take part in war and military confrontation.”
Iran has attacked Israeli targets abroad. Its proxies in Lebanon, Hezbollah, have also carried out strikes during previous fierce hostilities.
Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bakr Kalibaf said on Sunday that Iran’s enemies should repent of the killings. In a broadcast on Iranian state radio, he said he had no regrets other than a harsh response from the criminal enemy.
When Iran claims that its nuclear program is non-military and focuses on energy, Fakhrizadeh was the subject of U.S. sanctions; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused him of leading a covert nuclear weapons operation.
At the time of the attack, there were suggestions that Israel, possibly with the support of Donald Trump, was trying to thwart any future attempts by Biden, the next president to come to terms with Iran.
In the face of Israel’s plight, Biden has said he is ready to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal abandoned by Trump and lift some economic sanctions if Iran returns to comply with the agreement.
Ben Rhodes was deputy national security adviser when Baden was Barack Obama’s vice president, but did not specify who was responsible for the killings. Criticized him “Aggressive action” aimed at undermining diplomacy between the incoming U.S. administration and Iran.
The agency France-Press contributed to the report
