Top Iranian nuclear scientist killed

WASHINGTON – An Iranian nuclear scientist has been killed near Tehran, the Iranian government confirmed on Friday, saying it was Israel’s hand without providing evidence so far.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, known as the “father of the Iranian bomb,” died of his injuries after armed assailants opened fire on his car, according to Iranian media reports, not independently confirmed by NBC News.

State media has shared photographs of the black Nissan sedan with bloodshield and multiple bullet holes covered in blood on the sidewalk of the car door. No group immediately claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif condemned the killing on Twitter, accusing it of having “serious signs” of Israeli involvement.

Fakhrizadeh’s death comes days before the 10-year anniversary of the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Majid Shahriri, whom Iran also blamed on Israel.

The Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.

The Pentagon, State Department and National Security Council declined to comment. President Donald Trump, however, retweeted a news article and a comment on Fakhrizadeh’s death.

Little is known about Fakhrizadeh, a high-ranking revolutionary security official who oversees the regime’s secret weapons programs as Iran’s top nuclear scientist.

In 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of continuing to develop nuclear weapons and said Fakhrizadeh was working on “special projects” within Iran’s defense ministry.

“Remember that name Fakhrizadeh,” Netanyahu said at the time.

Fakhrizadeh’s death is likely to escalate tensions between Iran and the United States, which have escalated under the Trump administration since Washington and Washington pulled out of the landmark Iran nuclear deal.

The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan, or JCPO agreement, argued by the Obama administration to lift sanctions on Iran has crippled its economy and cut its oil exports by almost half. In exchange for easing sanctions, Iran accepted the limits of its nuclear program until the terms expire in 2025.

In 2018, the Trump administration withdrew the United States from the JCPOA. Trump called it “the worst deal ever.”

The president has previously said he wants to reach a comprehensive deal with Iran that would severely limit its nuclear and ballistic missile work and suppress the regime’s role in regional proxy wars. Tehran has refused to communicate while US sanctions are in place.

After Washington and Washington withdrew from the nuclear deal, other signatories to the agreement – France, Germany, the UK, Russia and China – tried to keep the agreement alive.

In October, the United States re-imposed unilateral UN sanctions on Tehran through the Snapback process, which other members of the UN Security Council had previously said Washington did not have the right to do because it withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018.

After a series of attacks in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. And relations between Iran took another turn for the worse during the summer of 2019.

In June, the U.S. A U.S. military surveillance drone was shot down over the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian missiles, officials said. Iran said the plane was over its territory.

The strike comes a week after the United States blamed Iran for an attack on two oil tankers in the Persian Gulf region and four tankers in May.

U.S. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, was also fined for imposing new sanctions on Iranian military leaders convicted of shooting down a drone in June.

Tensions flared again in September last year when the United States blamed Iran for a strike in Saudi Arabia over the world’s largest crude processing plant and oil field.

The attack forced the state to cut its production operations in half and saw the biggest rise in crude prices in decades and renewed fears of a new war in the Middle East. Iran said it was not behind the attack.

Earlier this year, the U.S. carried out an airstrike that killed Qasim Soleimani, Iran’s top military commander.