Iran accuses Israel of assassinating nuclear scientist in effort to create “chaos”

Tehran: On Saturday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani accused Israel of backing the assassination of prominent nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and seeking to create “chaos” in the region weeks before Joe Biden assumed the US presidency, emphasizing that his country will not fall into this “trap”.

While Rouhani stressed the “timely” response, the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stressed the need to “punish” those responsible for the murder and continue Fakhrizadeh’s activities.

Rouhani said in a televised speech: “The Iranian nation is too smart to fall into the conspiracy trap set by the Zionists. They are thinking of creating chaos, but they must realize that we have exposed their tricks and we will not achieve their sinister goals “.

Iran’s “enemies” warned that their country and its officials “are too brave to leave this criminal act unanswered. In due time, they will respond to this crime.”

On Friday, the Iranian Defense Ministry announced Fakhrizadeh’s death from his injuries shortly after he was targeted by “terrorist elements.” He explained that he was “seriously injured” after his car was attacked by attackers who were fired upon with their bodyguards and “died” in hospital despite attempts to resuscitate him.

The operation took place in the city of Absard in Damavand province, east of Tehran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was the first to point the accusing finger at Israel, after confirming the death of “serious indications” of his role.

Early Saturday, Rouhani said that Israel had played the role of “agent” in the assassination of “global arrogance,” a phrase Iranian officials often use to refer to the United States.

“Once again, the hands of global arrogance and its agent of the Zionist entity were stained with the blood of one of the sons of Iran,” he said in a statement posted on the presidential website, considering that the death of the scientist from 59 years is a “great loss.”

On Saturday, Khamenei praised Fakhrizadeh.

“One of the most distinguished and distinguished scientists in our country in the nuclear and defense fields, Mr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was martyred at the hands of criminal and mischievous agents,” reads a statement posted on the guide’s website. .

He added: “All officials must put two important issues seriously on their agenda. The first is to prosecute this crime and the inevitable punishment of its perpetrators and those who gave the orders to commit it, and the other is to continue the martyr’s scientific and technical efforts in all the fields in which he was working. “

Fakhrizadeh is considered one of the foremost Iranian scholars in his field, and was head of the Department of Research and Innovation Organization at the Ministry of Defense.

The US State Department placed his name on the sanctions list in 2008 for “activities and operations that contributed to the development of Iran’s nuclear program,” and Israel previously accused him, through its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of being behind a “military” nuclear program that Tehran denies exists.

The assassination occurred about two months before Biden took office, and it was he who promised to “turn the tide” of his outgoing predecessor, Donald Trump, with Iran. The latter adopted a policy of “maximum pressure” against Tehran, which included, in particular, the unilateral withdrawal in 2018 of the agreement on its nuclear program and the re-imposition of tough economic sanctions.

Iran previously saw in Biden’s victory an opportunity for Washington to make up for its “past mistakes.” Biden was vice president of the United States at the conclusion of the nuclear deal between Tehran and the major powers in 2015.

Rouhani hinted in his speech during a meeting of the National Authority to Combat Covid-19, that there is a link between the timing of the assassination and Biden’s imminent assumption of duties.

“This barbaric assassination shows that our enemies are going through difficult weeks, in which they feel that their period of pressure is receding and the international situation is changing,” he said.

He considered that Iran’s enemies “want to make the most of the remaining weeks” with the aim of “creating an unstable situation in the region.”

On Friday, the New York Times quoted a US official and intelligence officials as saying that Israel was “behind the attack on the scientist.”

Israel has not commented on the killing. While the media today indicated an increase in the security alert at its embassies around the world, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem declined to confirm it.

In light of the decades-long disruption of relations between Iran and the United States, the situation between them witnessed an escalation of tension during the Trump era, especially in the wake of the assassination by Washington of Major General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force in the Revolutionary Guard, in an airstrike near Baghdad airport last January.

Analysts and former officials warned that the process threatens to increase tension in the region, especially between Tehran, on the one hand, and Washington and its ally Tel Aviv.

Former CIA director John Brennan called the assassination a “criminal and reckless act”, warning that it could lead to “escalation … and a new round of regional conflict.”

In Tehran, the chief of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Muhammad Hossein Bagheri, threatened on Saturday with “harsh revenge” for the murder of the nuclear scientist.

Local media did not reveal many details about Fakhrizadeh’s role, but the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, reported on state television that “good cooperation (with him) in the field of nuclear defense” .

He went on to say he had a Ph.D. “in nuclear physics and engineering” and worked on his thesis with Fereydoun Abbasi Dawani, the former head of the Energy Organization who survived the 2011 assassination attempt.

For its part, the US media said that Fakhrizadeh was the “first target” of the Israeli intelligence service (Mossad).

The news of the murder made the front pages of most Iranian newspapers.

The conservative Kayhan wrote: “An eye for an eye: brace yourselves O Zionists”, considering that “you have repeatedly shown that you only understand the language of force.”

For his part, the reformist Armand Melli believed that Iran should “act with greater vigilance than before (…) so as not to fall into the trap of very tense steps.”

This murder is the latest in a series of killings in recent years that have targeted several Iranian scientists in the nuclear field. Tehran has always pointed the accusing finger at Israel and its ally the United States.

The Hebrew state calls for “strict international sanctions” against Iran for its nuclear program, noting that Tehran denies any effort to develop a nuclear weapon.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah, Israel’s arch enemy and close to Iran, condemned the assassination of scientist Fakhri Zadeh, noting that it was held up “in full force” by Tehran.