Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran's top scientist linked to military nuclear program, assassinated

TEHRAN: Iranian state television on Friday reported that the country's top nuclear scientist - Mohsen Fakhrizadeh - has been ''assassinated''. Confirming the news, Iran’s Defence Ministry said the alleged head of its nuclear weapons program was assassinated Friday near the capital Tehran.

The Ministry confirmed the death of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh after it was widely reported by the Iranian media.

“This Friday afternoon, armed terrorist elements attacked a car carrying Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, head of the Ministry of Defense’s Research and Innovation Organization,” it said. “During the clash between his security team and the terrorists, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was seriously injured and taken to hospital,'' it added.

“Unfortunately, the medical team did not succeed in reviving him, and a few minutes ago, this manager and scientist, after years of effort and struggle, achieved a high degree of martyrdom.

There was no clarity on whether the attackers had escaped.

Javad Zarif,  the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, issued a statement in which he said, "Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today. This cowardice -with serious indications of Israeli role -shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators. Iran calls on the international community - and especially the EU - to end their shameful double standards and condemn this act of state terror.''

It is to be noted that Fakhrizadeh was named by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2018 as the director of Iran’s nuclear weapons project.

When Netanyahu revealed then that Israel had removed from a warehouse in Tehran a vast archive of Iran’s own material detailing with its nuclear weapons program, he said, “Remember that name, Fakhrizadeh.”

Israel has long been suspected of carrying out a series of targeted killings of Iranian nuclear scientists nearly a decade ago, in a bid to curtail Iran’s nuclear program. It made no comment on the matter on Friday.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. However, Iranian media widely reported the interest that Netanyahu had previously shown in Fakhrizadeh.

Fakhrizadeh led Iran’s so-called “Amad,” or “Hope” program. Israel and the West have alleged it was a military operation looking at the feasibility of building a nuclear weapon in Iran. Tehran long has maintained its nuclear program is peaceful.

The International Atomic Energy Agency claims that the “Amad” program ended in the early 2000s. Its inspectors now monitor Iranian nuclear sites.