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Mohsen Fakhrizadeh died in the hospital after armed assassins shot him dead in his car, according to state media. Iran was quick to blame Israel and suggested that it had acted with the blessing of US President Donald Trump.
In the final days of their ally’s political life, the Zionists seek to intensify pressure on Iran and create a full-blown war.
Hossein Dehghan, military adviser to the religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, lashed out in an angry tweet promising to “strike like thunder at the murderers of this oppressed martyr.”
Referring to Trump, defeated by Joe Biden in the November 3 US presidential election, he added: “In the final days of his ally’s political life, the Zionists seek to intensify pressure on Iran and create a war across rule. “
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted about “serious indications of Israel’s role” and called on Western countries to “end their shameful double standards and condemn this act of state terror.”
US President Donald Trump and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Image: GETTY)
Iran has accused Israel of assassinating Mohsen Fakhrizadeh (Image: PA)
Fakhrizadeh has for years been described by Western and Israeli intelligence services as the leader of a covert atomic bomb program that was halted in 2003, but which both Israel and the United States believe Iran is trying to revive, allegations Tehran denies.
A statement issued by Iran’s armed forces read: “Unfortunately, the medical team failed to revive Mr. Fakhrizadeh, and a few minutes ago, this manager and scientist achieved the high status of martyrdom after years of effort and struggle.”
The semi-official Tasnim news agency suggested that “the terrorists blew up another car” before firing at a vehicle carrying Fakhrizadeh and his bodyguards in an ambush outside the capital.
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Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted about the incident. (Image: Twitter)
Neither Israel nor the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department or the CIA have commented, nor has Biden’s transition team.
Regardless of who was behind the attack, it is guaranteed to increase the already high tensions between Tehran and Washington in the final weeks of the Trump presidency.
In 2018, Trump pulled the United States out of an agreement reached with Obama, his predecessor, by which sanctions on Iran were lifted in exchange for curbing its nuclear program.
Biden has said he will aim to restore that agreement, although such a move would be highly controversial.
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Incoming President Joe Biden (Image: GETTY)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Image: GETTY)
Speculation has abounded that Trump could be plotting to target Iran in the final weeks of his tenure in the White House.
Earlier this month, a U.S. official confirmed that the 74-year-old had asked military aides for a plan for a possible attack on Iran, but decided against doing so after being warned that it could spark a broader conflict in the Middle East.
In January, Trump ordered a US drone strike in Baghdad that killed Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s most powerful military commander.
Iran retaliated by firing missiles at a US base in Iraq, the closest the two enemies of war have come in decades.
Iranian Military Datasheet (Image: Express)
Fakhrizadeh was the only Iranian scientist mentioned in the 2015 “final assessment” by the International Atomic Energy Agency of open questions on Iran’s nuclear program.
The IAEA report said it monitored activities “in support of a possible military dimension to Iran’s nuclear program.”
He was a central figure in a presentation by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2018 accusing Iran of continuing to search for nuclear weapons.
Mr. Netanyahu commented, “Remember that name, Fakhrizadeh.”
Qassem Soleimani was killed by a US drone strike in January (Image: GETTY)
Speaking before the story broke today, before news of the Fakhrizadeh attack broke, an Israeli official said Israel was discussing with the Arab Gulf states how to approach Iran.
Tzachi Hanegbi, who sits in Netanyahu’s security cabinet, told Tel Aviv’s 102 FM radio station: “The story is not Trump, not even Israel.
“The story is Iran: the growing fear that a new American administration will return to the nuclear agreement that threatens the very existence of the Gulf countries,” Tzachi Hanegbi, who sits in Netanyahu’s security cabinet, told the station. radio 102 FM from Tel Aviv.
“We will know how to handle the issue of the Iranian threat, even if it is by our own means.”
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