Top Nuclear Scientist In Iran Assassinated, Assumes Israel Involved - What Happens Next?

Iran Confirms Top Nuclear Scientist Assassinated in Tehran

John Hayward

Iranian state media reported on Friday morning that top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated near the capital city of Tehran by unidentified “terrorists” after a fierce battle with his security team. 

Fakhrizadeh was described as the “father of the Iranian bomb” in a famous 2018 presentation by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Iran’s Tasnim news agency quoted a statement from the Defense Ministry that said “armed terrorist elements” attacked Fakhrizadeh’s car on Friday, severely wounding him during a firefight with his bodyguards. 

According to Tasnim, the injured nuclear scientist was taken to a hospital, where “efforts by the medial teams to resuscitate the Iranian scientist failed and he was martyred.”

Tasnim reported explosives were used in the attack and “a number of people have been killed in the incident,” possibly including relatives of Fakhrizadeh who were traveling with him. 

Iran’s Fars news agency says the attack included “an explosion and machine gun fire.”

Iran’s PressTV quoted Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif claiming there was evidence of Israeli involvement in the attack.

“Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today. This cowardice – with serious indications of an Israeli role – shows the desperate warmongering of the perpetrators,” Zarif said on Twitter.

Timing is everything: Assassination of Iran nuke chief Fakhrizadeh

SETH J. FRANTZMAN

The assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh comes at a sensitive and important time.

The killing of a nuclear scientist closely linked to Iran’s secretive nuclear program is an even bigger message. Iran has been humiliated by having one of is leading professors and nuclear chiefs, one whose name was well known, apparently gunned down in broad daylight on the street near Absard Iran, east of Tehran. Photos showed blood, a car with bullet holes and a second vehicle that had been blown up.  

Clearly Fakhrizadeh was a key to Iran’s program and his killing shows how vulnerable that program is. Back in June and early July a series of mysterious explosions hit Iran’s missile complex at khojir and then the nuclear facility at Natanz. This harmed the centrifuges that are key to the nuclear program. 

In recent weeks a number of important events have taken place. For instance Israel has hosted key delegations from the Gulf. Iran has also been implicated in planting explosives along the Golan in mid-November. Israel says it carried out airstrikes in retaliation. Then, earlier this week, reports in Syrian regime and other media claimed more airstrikes harmed pro-Iranian personnel in Syria. Reports of those airstrikes were made on November 25. 

Iran is in a complex position at the moment. It has been harmed by the Trump administration’s economic sanctions. It has also made progress on its drone and ballistic missile programs in recent years. It has used those missiles in Syria and Iraq and trafficked them to Iraq. It has used drones to attack Saudi Arabia and trafficked technology to the Houthi rebels in Yemen that resulted in ballistic missile attacks on Saudi Arabia. It has moved drones to Syria. It has also tried to move air defense to Syria in 2018. 

Iran has tried to entrench in Syria, moving forces and weapons to Albukamal on the Iraq border and T-4 base to create a corridor of influence. It has repeatedly tried to strike at Israel from the Golan and entrenched in Damascus and its environs.

 Israel and the Gulf states have made peace and is watching Washington closely. The death of its key scientist on the road to Absard, not far from the Khojir missile site, is a huge embarrassment for Iran.