Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the head of the Islamic republic's nuclear program, was assassinated Friday in a drive-by shooting in the city of Damavand, east of Tehran.
According to Iranian media reports, Fakhrizadeh, 59, was accompanied by his bodyguard when they were ambushed on a highway. The assailants reportedly used explosives to force his car to stop, then shot him. He died in a nearby hospital shortly thereafter. The bodyguard was wounded in the attack but no details were given on his condition.
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"The nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated today [Friday] by terrorists," the Iranian Defense Ministry said in a statement. "Unfortunately, the medical team did not succeed in reviving him and … this scientist achieved the high status of martyrdom."
Hossein Dehgan, the military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed Israel for the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and vowed to retaliate for the killing.
"In the last days of their gambling ally's political life, the Zionists seek to intensify and increase pressure on Iran to wage a full-blown war," Dehghan wrote, appearing to refer to Trump's last days in office. "We will descend like lightning on the killers of this oppressed martyr and we will make them regret their actions!"
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif alleged the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh bore "serious indications" of an Israeli role, but did not elaborate.
"Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today. This cowardice – with serious indications of Israeli role – shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators.
"Iran calls on int'l community – and especially EU – to end their shameful double standards & condemn this act of state terror," he wrote.
Iranian Chief of Staff for the Armed Forces Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri said his country will "exact a devastating revenge" over the incident, Channel 12 News reported.
Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today. This cowardice—with serious indications of Israeli role—shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators
Iran calls on int'l community—and especially EU—to end their shameful double standards & condemn this act of state terror.
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) November 27, 2020
The New York Times claimed that three officials had confirmed that Israel – long suspected of killing several Iranian nuclear scientists a decade ago – was behind Fakhrizadeh's elimination as well.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office declined to comment on Fakhrizadeh's assassination. In the United States, the Pentagon declined to comment and the State Department and White House were unavailable for comment. President-elect Joe Biden's team also declined to comment.
Channel 12 News cited former Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. (ret.) Amos Yadlin, who heads the Institute for National Security Studies, as saying that Fakhrizadeh's assassination "could trigger a violent response by Iran that would be the excuse the US seeks to strike Iran's nuclear facilities. Regardless of whether Iran exacts revenge or restrain its response, this will make it difficult for Biden to re-enter the nuclear deal."
He further advised Israeli officials to remain mum on the issue. "When Iran is roused but faces [a retaliation] dilemma and the Pentagon opts to keep quiet, Israeli officials should remember – silence is golden," Yadlin said.
Evil genius?
Fakhrizadeh has been described by Western and Israeli intelligence services as the leader of Iran's nuclear weapons program, which was halted in 2003 – the same program Israel and the United States have accused Iran of trying to restore in secret.
Iran has long denied seeking to weaponize nuclear energy, claiming its nuclear program was strictly for civilian purposes.
The killing risks further raising tensions across the Middle East, nearly a year after Iran and the US stood on the brink of war when an American drone strike killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the infamous commander of Iran's notorious extraterritorial black-ops arm, the Quds Force, in Baghdad.
It also comes just as President-elect Joe Biden stands poised to be inaugurated in January and will likely complicate his efforts to return America to a pact aimed at ensuring Iran does not have enough highly enriched uranium to make a nuclear weapon.
That deal, which saw Iran limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions, has entirely unraveled after President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord in 2018.
Trump himself retweeted a posting from Israeli journalist Yossi Melman, an expert on the Israeli intelligence services, about the killing.
Melman's tweet reads, "Mohsen Fakhrizadeh has been assassinated in Damavand, east of Tehran according to reports in Iran. He was head of Iran's secret military program and wanted for many years by Mossad. His death is a major psychological and professional blow for Iran."
Details about the slaying remained slim in the hours after the attack.
Iranian state television said an old truck with explosives hidden under a load of wood blew up near a sedan carrying Fakhrizadeh.
As Fakhrizadeh's sedan stopped, at least five gunmen emerged and raked the car with rapid fire, the semiofficial Tasnim news agency said.
Photos and video shared online showed a Nissan sedan with bullet holes in the windshield and blood pooled on the road.
The attack comes just days before the 10-year anniversary of the killing of Iranian nuclear scientist Majid Shahriari, which Tehran also blamed on Israel. That and other targeted killings happened at the time that the so-called Stuxnet virus, believed to be an Israeli and American creation, destroyed Iranian centrifuges.
While Iran had always described Fakhrizadeh as a university physics professor, he was a member of the Revolutionary Guards and had been seen in pictures in meetings attended by Khamenei – a sign of his political power.
Fakhrizadeh had been sanctioned by the UN Security Council and the US for his work on Iran's nuclear weapons program, known as AMAD.
In recent years, US sanctions lists name him as heading Iran's Organization for Defensive Innovation and Research. The State Department described that organization last year as working on "dual-use research and development activities, of which aspects are potentially useful for nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons delivery systems."
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