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An unidentified US official blamed Israel for the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran’s top nuclear scientist.
Quoting the CNN television channel on December 2, the RT news agency said that the official declined to say whether the United States knew in advance or participated in the attack.
According to him, the United States and Israel previously shared information about covert targets and actions before they were taken. However, he declined to say whether this exchange occurred in the case of the Iranian scientist or not.
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| Protesters holding photos of Fakhrizadeh during the march to protest the murder. Photo: Reuters |
On November 27, a van was detonated in front of nuclear scientist Fakhrizadeh’s car in Absard, east of the capital, Tehran. Then gunmen from another truck fired. Mr. Fakhrizadeh died in the hospital.
Iran accused Israel of being behind the attack, but gave no proof. Meanwhile, Israel neither rejects nor accepts responsibility for the death of scientist Fakhrizadeh.
Similarly to CNN, the New York Times also last week quoted a US official and two other intelligence officials as saying Israel was behind the attack, but did not provide details.
According to the Al Jazeera news agency, Iran has always denied that Fakhrizadeh is related to the development of nuclear weapons and that the country has never tried to turn nuclear energy into a weapon of destruction.
However, the United Nations atomic monitoring organization and American intelligence believe that scientist Fakhrizadeh, who led the development of Iran’s nuclear weapons, was forced to halt in 2003.
In a statement issued on November 28, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said that Iran would respond to the assassination of scientist Fakhrizadeh, and claimed that Fakhrizadeh’s work would continue.
On the same day, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani accused Israel of trying to “cause chaos” by carrying out the assassination of Mr. Fakhrizadeh. The Iranian leader also promised to respond to the incident “at the right time.”
Duong Lam
Unexpected consequences of the assassination of Iran’s nuclear scientist
The assassination of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh threatens to unleash a wave of violence between Iran, Israel and the United States; it put the new administration in Washington in a difficult position by reestablishing relations with Tehran.
Who is the assassinated Iranian nuclear scientist?
Western officials and experts believe that scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh has just been assassinated as the “architect” behind Iran’s nuclear weapons development programs.
