Iran’s supreme leader has promised to retaliate for the killing of the nation’s top nuclear scientist.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pledged to continue the work of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who Western and Israeli governments believe was the architect of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program.
Friday’s killing, which Iran’s president was swift to blame on Israel, could complicate any efforts by US President-elect Joe Biden to revive a detente with Tehran.
US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the 2015 international nuclear pact agreed between Tehran and major powers.
Khamenei, who is Iran’s top authority and who says the country has never sought nuclear arms, said on Twitter that Iranian officials must take up the task of “pursuing this crime and punishing its perpetrators and those who commanded it”.
Fakhrizadeh, who had little public profile in Iran but who Israel named as a prime player in what it says is Iran’s nuclear weapons quest, was killed on Friday when he was ambushed near Tehran and his car sprayed with bullets. He was rushed to hospital where he died.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told a televised meeting on Saturday Iran would respond “at the proper time”.
“Once again, the evil hands of Global Arrogance and the Zionist mercenaries were stained with the blood of an Iranian son,” he said, using terms officials employ to refer to Israel.
Read the article in the Riverine Herald (AAP Newswire).