According to an adviser to the country’s top leader, Iran is plotting a “calculated and decisive” response to the killing of its top nuclear scientist, calling for an escalation of retaliatory attacks.
An opinion piece published in a hard-line newspaper suggested that the Iranian port city of Haifa would be attacked if Israel carried out the killings.
“Undoubtedly, Iran will give a calculated and decisive answer to the perpetrators of the abduction of Martyr Mohsen Fakhrizadeh from the Iranian nation,” Kamal Kharraji, an adviser to the head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, said in a statement.
Fakhrizadeh, the founder of the Islamic Republic’s military nuclear program in the early 2000s, was killed in a military-style ambush outside Tehran on Friday when a truck bomb exploded and a gunman opened fire.
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Israel has not commented on the attack, but Iran’s clergy and military rulers have claimed responsibility for the attack, pointing to a spate of assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists over the past decade.
In this photo, published by the Iranian Ministry of Defense and taken on Saturday, November 28, 2020, the custodians of the Imam Reza Holy Temple, the Iranian scientist associated with the country’s disbanded military nuclear program, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh Was internally murdered. (Iranian Ministry of Defense through AP)
The opinion piece, written by Iranian analyst Sadullah Zarei and published on Sunday in the Kayhan daily, argued that Iran’s earlier responses to a suspected Israeli airstrike that killed Revolutionary Guards troops in Syria did not go far enough to deter Israel.
Zare said Iran should avenge the attack on Haifa which destroyed a large number of facilities and “also caused heavy human casualties.”
Attacking Haifa on the Mediterranean Sea and killing large numbers of people will “lead to chaos, because the United States and the Israeli regime and its agents are in no way prepared to take part in war and military confrontation. , ”Zarei wrote.
He said Haifa needed to be attacked after Iran’s ballistic missile attack on American troops in Iraq following a US drone strike in Baghdad in January.
Kehan is a small circulating newspaper, but its editor-in-chief was appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamani of Hussein Shariatmadari and has been described as his adviser in the past. Hefa has been threatened in the past by Iran and its pro-Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.
A closed-door hearing on Fakhrizadeh’s assassination was held in Iran’s 290-seat parliament on Sunday. Afterwards, the speaker of parliament, Mohammed Bakr Ghalibaf, said that Iran’s enemies must apologize for his killing.
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In a broadcast on Iranian state radio, he said he had no regrets other than a harsh response from the criminal enemy. In the public session of the legislators he was called “Death to America!” And “Death of Israel!”
A group of protesters burned pictures of US President Donald Trump’s top and president-elect Joe Biden at a rally in front of the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Saturday, November 28, 2020, a day after the assassination of Iranian Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. . (AP Photo / Wahid Salemi)
They also began reviewing a bill that would stop inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The nuclear watchdog provides an unprecedented, real-time look at Iran’s civilian nuclear program following the country’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
President Trump’s unilateral 2018 agreement with the U.S. The deal has been unveiled since the move. The Iranian civilian nuclear program has since continued its experiments and is now enriching the growing uranium stockpile to 4.5 ..% purity. Although it is still below 90% of the weapons-grade level, experts warn that Iran now has enough uranium to replace fuel for at least two atomic bombs, according to the Associated Press.
According to the report, the bill also requires Iran’s civilian nuclear program to enrich at least 265 pounds of uranium to 20%, a short technical step of 90%.
Fakhrizadeh led Iran’s so-called Amad program, which Israel and the West have accused of taking military action in view of the possibility of building a nuclear weapon. The IAEA says the “structured program” ended in 2003. U.S. intelligence agencies agreed with the assessment in a 2007 report.
Israel claims that Iran still intends to develop a nuclear weapon. He argues that Iran’s ballistic missile program and other research could help build bombs if pursued – especially in accordance with the provisions of the 2015 nuclear deal termination. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful and has no plans to build a nuclear bomb.
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The assassination of Fakhrizadeh is likely to complicate the plans of President-elect Joe Biden, who has said his administration will consider re-entering Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers. It also increases the risk of a military confrontation in Trump’s last week in office.
The Associated Press contributes to this report.
