Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has accused arch-foe Israel of trying to create “chaos” by assassinating one of Tehran’s top nuclear scientists, but said his country would not fall into a “trap”.
Scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was “martyred” after being seriously wounded when assailants targeted his car and engaged in a gunfight with his bodyguards outside the capital Tehran on Friday, according to Iran’s defence ministry.
On Saturday, Mr Rouhani said in televised remarks, after accusing the Jewish state of being behind the assassination: “The nation of Iran is smarter than to fall in the trap of the conspiracy set by the Zionists.
“They are thinking of creating chaos, but they should know that we have read their hands and they will not succeed,” the President said.
“Iran’s enemies should know, that the people of Iran and officials are braver than to leave this criminal act unanswered,” he said, talking at Iran’s weekly COVID-19 taskforce meeting.
“In due time, they will answer for this crime.”
The Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called for the perpetrators to be punished for Friday’s killing, while Mr Rouhani stressed the country would seek its revenge in “due time”.
Mr Khamenei called for “punishing the perpetrators and those responsible” in a short statement on his official website, urging that Mr Fakhrizadeh’s “scientific and technical efforts … in all of the fields he was working in” should be continued.
Read the article in The Australian (AFP).