Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has accused Israel of acting as a US “mercenary” and seeking to create chaos, vowing Tehran would avenge the assassination of a top Iranian nuclear scientist.
Supreme leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday called for the perpetrators to be punished, while Mr Rouhani stressed Iran would seek its revenge in “due time” and not be rushed into a “trap”.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, dubbed by Israel as the father of Iran’s nuclear program, died on Friday after being seriously wounded when assailants targeted his car and engaged in a gunfight with his bodyguards outside Tehran.
The assassination comes less than two months before US president-elect Joe Biden is due to take office, after four years of hawkish foreign policy in the Middle East under Donald Trump.
“They are thinking of creating chaos, but they should know that we have read their hands and they will not succeed,” Mr Rouhani said.
He pinned the blame for the killing on “the wicked hands of the global arrogance, with the usurper Zionist regime as the mercenary”.
Iran generally uses the term “global arrogance” to refer to the US. Students vented their anger by calling for revenge and burning US and Israeli flags outside the foreign ministry in Tehran, as well as pictures of Mr Trump and Mr Biden.
Read the article by Amir Havasi in The Australian (AFP).