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Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi, one of the country’s leading nuclear scientists, who is said to be the mastermind behind the Iranian nuclear program, was assassinated on Friday outside Tehran. Iran’s Foreign Minister points the finger at Israel, Although there is no official information on who carried out the attack, who were reportedly killed after attacking the vehicle the scientist was following, according to Iran’s FARS news agency, which cites eyewitnesses. THE promise of revenge it has already been done by a military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader and other senior officials in the country.
“Today, terrorists have assassinated an eminent Iranian scientist,” writes Minister Javad Zarif on Twitter. “This cowardice, which has strong indications that it is an Israeli responsibility, shows the warmongering desperation of the perpetrators.” The Minister of Foreign Affairs also asks the international community and especially the European Union to “put an end to its shameful” two pesos and two measures and “Condemn this act of terrorism.”
Terrorists today assassinated an eminent Iranian scientist. This cowardice, with serious indications of the role of Israel, shows a desperate warmongering of the perpetrators.
Iran calls on the international community, and especially the EU, to end its shameful double standards and condemn this act of state terror.
– Javad Zarif (@JZarif) November 27, 2020
The attack took place in the city of Absar, Damavand county, 40 kilometers east of Tehran, the country’s capital. The streets of that area full of vacation homes were emptier than normal, as the Covid-19 pandemic forced the country into a new confinement.
According to the FARS agency, the vehicle that the 63-year-old scientist was following was hit first by an explosion and then by machine gun fire.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi was taken to hospital but died. A statement from the Iranian Defense Ministry said that “after a confrontation between the terrorists and the bodyguards, Fakhrizadeh was seriously injured and was rushed to hospital”, but “The medical team was unable to revive him.”
The private Iranian news agency Tasnim said the scientist had arrived by helicopter at the health unit and that the the truck where the attackers were following them was loaded with explosives, hidden under wood. After an explosion near the vehicle that was following Fakhrizadeh, the attackers fired several bullets at the vehicle. It is said that one of the scientist’s bodyguards was shot four times. Fakhrizadeh suffered injuries from the blast and from bullets that proved fatal.
The attack took place in the city of Absar, Damavand county, 40 kilometers east of Tehran.
Another finger that has already pointed in the direction of Israel was that of Hossein Dehghan, military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: “In the last days of their ally’s political life in the game, the Zionists seek to step up and increase pressure Iran to wage war. Let’s get down like lightning on the killers of this oppressed martyr and we will make them repent of their actions.
Statements by the military, considered favorites in the 2021 presidential race, are quoted in various Iranian newspapers. Dehghan thus verbalizes the idea that is in the minds of many Iranians and that is read repeatedly on social networks: Israel wants to provoke an open confrontation with Iran while it is still Donald Trump who occupies the Oval Office.
“Israel is trying to provoke war”
A military adviser to the leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution has accused Israel of assassinating the country’s top nuclear scientist. #MohsenFakhrizadeh. Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan said Tel Aviv is trying to provoke war.#Iran pic.twitter.com/d0gOtPPtpc
– Press TV (@PressTV) November 27, 2020
Israel so far has not commented on the scientist’s death. he also did not react to the charges against him.
On the United States side, there was no official statement about what happened. President Donald Trump simply republished the news of the assassination, without adding anything else, and that was enough for some local media, such as Mehr, to write that by republishing a text by “Zionist journalist Yossi Melman”, the American president. “It implicitly confirmed the involvement of the Zionist regime in the assassination of the Iranian nuclear scientist.”
In his tweet, Melman writes that the death of the nuclear scientist is a “great psychological and professional blow to Iran” and that he was wanted for several years by Mossad, Israel’s secret services.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh has been killed in Damavand, east of Tehran, according to reports from Iran. He was the head of Iran’s secret military program and was wanted for many years by Mossad. His death is a great psychological and professional blow to Iran.
– Yossi Melman (@yossi_melman) November 27, 2020
According to FARS, there is no shortage of senior Iranian officials who promise revenge for the death of the nuclear scientist. These include Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, spokesman for the Iranian parliament, and the chief of staff and general of the Iranian Armed Forces, Mohammad Hossein Baqeri.
“Severe revenge for the terrorists” and for those who ordered the attack was the promise made by the speaker of parliament who also left accusations against Israel: “The terrorist attack against the country’s leading scientific and defender elite, the martyr Dr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, director of the Organization for Innovation and Defensive Research once again exposed the filthy face of the Zionist regime and global arrogance. “
The chief of staff’s message did not vary much in tone. “A tough revenge awaits the murderers,” said General Baqeri, who also attributed the responsibility “to the evil Zionist regime.” In addition, he left an alert: Iran will not make a U-turn. “Our enemies must know that while the assassination of this valuable administrator has dealt a blow to the country’s defense complex, the path started by these scientists will never be interrupted,” added the general.
Qalibaf also left a similar promise: “Our industries in all areas of military, nuclear, missile, etc. it will move even faster. “
Several international analysts compare the importance of Fakhrizadeh with that of Qasem Soleimani, a general assassinated by the United States last January during an airstrike in Baghdad.
Who is Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s elite general assassinated by the United States?
“There was a parallel between the two in terms of seniority and prestige within Iran, although they did completely different things,” Simon Henderson, a Middle East expert, told the Washington Post.
Fakhrizadeh is not the first nuclear scientist in Iran to be assassinated. Between 2010 and 2012, four other physicists were killed: Masoud Alimohammadi, Majid Shahriari, Darioush Rezaeinejad, and Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, and a fifth was injured during an assassination attempt (Fereydoon Abbasi).
Tehran viewed that series of events as an attempt to sabotage its nuclear energy program and accused Israel of being an accessory to the crimes.
In 2018, the Israeli Prime Minister identified Fakhrizadeh as the director of the Iranian nuclear program, during a speech in which he accused Iran of lying to the international community.
“Iran lied a lot,” Benjamin Netanyahu said in Tel Aviv, in a speech broadcast on television. “Iran is blatantly lying when it says it never had a nuclear weapons program.” Of the now murdered scientist, Netanyahu said: “Remember this name, Fakhrizadeh.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh (Photo: Iranian Leader Press Office / Brochure / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The words of the Israeli prime minister are being remembered by the Iranian press emphasizing that Fakhrizadeh was the only Iranian nuclear scientist appointed by Netanyahu.
A general of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and a physics professor at Imam Hussein University, little is known about Fakhrizadeh’s life. Until 2018 there was not even a public image of you.
In the West, he is believed to have led Iran’s so-called Amad (or Hope) program that ended in the early 2000s, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Since then, Iranian facilities have been regularly inspected as part of Iran’s nuclear deal with the five countries with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council (the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, and France) and Germany.
During his tenure, Donald Trump alienated the United States from the deal.
The Amad program would target the construction of nuclear weapons, although Tehran has always rejected that idea, ensuring that the nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes.
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