Iran accuses Israel again, vows to avenge assassination of scientist who devised nuclear plan

Iranian leaders on Saturday promised to avenge the murder of a scientist linked to its nuclear program. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called for the “ultimate punishment”, while President Hassan Rouhani pledged revenge and blamed Israel.

The Ayatollah published its statements in a statement posted on its official website. Khamenei said Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was a “eminent and distinguished nuclear scientist”.

Israel, which Tehran has long accused of killing experts amid nuclear tensions, has not commented on the matter. The attack where Fakhrizadeh died was a carefully planned military-style ambush, near Tehran.

The assassination raises tensions in the Middle East, after less than a year ago the two countries were on the brink of war when the United States killed Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards with a drone in Baghdad.

The attack on Fakhrizadeh came as President-elect Joe Biden is set to be inaugurated in January and could complicate attempts to get the United States to return to a deal to ensure that Iran does not have enough highly enriched uranium to make a nuclear weapon.

In a meeting with his government team responsible for responding to the coronavirus, President Rouhani reiterated that Fakhrizadeh’s death will not stop his nuclear program. Iran’s civilian atomic plan enriches uranium by up to 4.5%, well below weapon grade levels of 90%.

“We will react to the murder of martyr Fakhrizadeh at the right time,” Rouhani said. “The Iranian nation is smarter than falling into the Zionist trap. They think they are creating chaos,” he added.

Hours earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif claimed that Fakhrizadeh’s assassination had “serious indications” to be Israel’s work, but gave no details.

“Terrorists today assassinated a prominent Iranian scientist. This cowardly act, with serious indications of Israeli involvement, shows the hawkish desperation of the perpetrators,” Zarif wrote on Twitter.

The international deal by which Iran limited its uranium enrichment in exchange for lifting economic sanctions collapsed after President Donald Trump withdrew his country from the pact in 2018.

Doubts about the attack

Details of Fakhrizadeh’s murder in Absard, a small town east of the capital which is a retreat for the Iranian elite, were scarce. State television said an old van loaded with explosives and hidden under a load of wood exploded near the sedan in which the scientist was traveling.

When Fakhrizadeh’s vehicle stopped, at least five armed men appeared and they riddled it with gunsthe semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

Fakhrizadeh died in a hospital. The wounded were his escorts. Photos and videos uploaded show a Nissan sedan with bullet holes in the windshield and blood on the road.

Hours after the attack The Pentagon announced that it had redeployed the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier to the Middle East, an unusual action as the ship had been in the area for months.

The Pentagon said the decline of US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq was the reason for the move. “It was prudent to have additional defensive capacity in the region to deal with any eventuality,” he added.

The attack took place days before the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Majid Shahriari, which Tehran also attributed to Israel. These and other targeted assassinations took place when the Stuxnet computer virus, believed to have been created by Israel and the United States, destroyed Iranian centrifuges.

Fakhrizadeh headed the Iranian program “Amad” (“Hope”). Israel and the West have alleged that this was a military operation aimed at the viability of building a nuclear weapon in Iran. Tehran has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful.

By Amir Vahdat and Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press