Dubai: An Iranian scientist long suspected by the West of masterminding a secret nuclear bomb program was killed in an ambush near Tehran that could provoke confrontation between Iran and its foes in the last weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency.
The death of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who Iranian media said died in hospital after armed assassins gunned him down in his car, will also complicate any effort by US President-elect Joe Biden to revive the detente of Barack Obama’s presidency.
Iran pointed the finger at Israel, while implying the killing had the blessing of the departing Trump. Foreign Minister Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter of “serious indications of [an] Israeli role”.
The Iranian army said the US also bore responsibility, according to the Iranian Labour News Agency. The Minister of Defence, Amir Hatami, told state TV the killing was “clearly linked” to the US assassination of General Qassem Soleimani by drone in January.
The military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed to “strike as thunder at the killers of this oppressed martyr”. “In the last days of the political life of their […] ally [Trump], the Zionists seek to intensify pressure on Iran and create a full-blown war,” Hossein Dehghan tweeted.
Channels of the Telegram encrypted messaging app believed to be close to Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards reported that the top security body, the Supreme National Security Council, convened an emergency meeting with senior military commanders present.
Israel declined to comment. The White House, Pentagon, US State Department and CIA also declined to comment, as did Biden’s transition team.
Read the article by Parisa Hafezi in The Sydney Morning Herald.