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WASHINGTON: The assassination of a top Iranian nuclear scientist, who Tehran has blamed on Israel, risks not only exacerbating tensions in the region, but also seriously complicating US President-elect Joe Biden’s plans to resume dialogue with the Islamic republic, analysts said on Saturday. (November 28).
Iran has accused arch-enemy Israel of trying to wreak “chaos” by killing 59-year-old Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, and has strongly hinted that the Jewish state was acting with the blessing of the United States.
Washington has not officially commented on the operation, in which gunmen attacked Fakhrizadeh’s car on a highway outside Tehran, according to Iran’s Defense Ministry.
But President Donald Trump has retweeted others’ comments about the incident, including at least one that said the scientist had been “wanted for many years by Mossad,” the Israeli intelligence agency.
Trump in 2018 withdrew the United States from the multinational nuclear deal with Iran, instead launching a “maximum pressure” campaign that he seems determined to carry out until he leaves office in January.
READ: Iran’s Khamenei vows retaliation for the murder of a nuclear scientist
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who recently visited Israel, announced new economic sanctions on Friday against some Chinese and Russian companies accused of having supported Iran’s missile program.
“This administration … is here until January 20” and “will continue to apply its policies,” said a senior US official traveling with Pompeo during a stop in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
“I hope that this influence that the administration works so hard for is used with good purpose to get the Iranians once again to start behaving like a normal state.”
‘CRIMINAL ACT’
But for some American analysts, Fakhrizadeh’s assassination was a dangerous act that undermines Biden’s stated intention to offer Iran “a credible path back to diplomacy” as a step toward US rejoining the nuclear deal.
Former CIA chief John Brennan tweeted on Friday that the scientist’s murder was a “criminal and very reckless act,” saying he “runs the risk of lethal reprisals and a new round of regional conflict.”
Brennan, who headed the US intelligence agency from 2013 to 2017, when Barack Obama was president and Biden was vice president, called on Iran to “await the return of responsible American leadership on the global stage and resist the temptation to respond. against the perceived culprits. “
As the United States was moving a group of aircraft carriers led by the USS Nimitz back to the Gulf, while insisting that this had nothing to do with the assassination, Germany on Saturday warned against any further “escalation.”
“We call on all parties to avoid taking any action that may lead to a further escalation of the situation” that “we do not need at all at this time,” a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry told AFP.
“Weeks before a new government takes over in the United States, the existing dialogue with Iran must be maintained to resolve the conflict over Iran’s nuclear program through negotiation.”
‘STRANGE ACTION’
Ben Friedman, an advocacy specialist at George Washington University, shared that view.
The assassination, he said, was “an act of sabotage against US diplomacy and interests” and “would probably help hard-line Iranians who want nuclear weapons.”
READ: Iran’s top nuclear scientist stayed in the shadows, but his work was discovered
For Ben Rhodes, a former Obama adviser, “this is a scandalous move intended to undermine diplomacy between the incoming US administration and Iran.”
He added: “It is time for this incessant escalation to stop.”
However, some analysts saw the assassination in Iran as an advantage for the incoming US administration that could be useful in potential negotiations with Tehran.
“Still almost two months before Joe Biden takes office,” said Mark Dubowitz, director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).
“A long time for the United States and Israel to inflict severe damage on the Iranian regime and create influence for the Biden administration.”
