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Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamad Yavad Zarif said there were “serious hints of Israel’s role” in Fajrizadeh’s murder.
The eminent Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fajrizadeh was killed on Friday 27-N near Tehran, in an attack for which the authorities have blamed Israel and which is reminiscent of those perpetrated in the country ten years ago.
Fajrizadeh, considered by Western intelligence as the director of the allegedly former Iranian secret program for the development of nuclear weapons, died in hospital from serious injuries sustained in the event.
The attack was carried out in the Absard area, in the province of Tehran, by an unknown number of armed men, who opened fire on the scientist’s vehicle and carried out at least one explosion.
According to a statement by the Iranian Ministry of Defense, a clash with the attackers broke out in which some of the scientist’s bodyguards were injured.
Information published by semi-official agencies such as Tasnim and Fars speaks of the explosion of a car before the shooting and the death of some of the people present at the event.
The authorship of the attack is unknown at the moment, but it is inevitable to draw some parallels with the murders of five other scientists linked to the Iranian nuclear program between 2010 and 2012 in the country.
The “hand” of Israel
The Iranian authorities have accused the Israeli foreign intelligence service, Mosad, of these murders, perpetrated with bombs placed in scientists’ vehicles or with firearms.
This time the suspicions were similar. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamad Yavad Zarif said there were “serious hints of Israel’s role” in Fajrizadeh’s murder.
“Terrorists today murdered a prominent Iranian scientist. This cowardice, with grave indications of Israel’s role, shows the authors’ desperate warmonger,” Zarif wrote on his Twitter account.
Zarif also called on “the international community, and in particular the European Union (EU), to put an end to its shameful double standards and condemn this act of state terrorism”.
For his part, the influential commander Hosein Dehqan denounced that “in the last days of the political life of his ally (the outgoing president of the United States, Donald Trump), the Zionists seek to increase the pressure on Iran to wage a war in full rule.
“We will descend like lightning on the killers and make them regret their actions!” Said Dehqan, military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, while the chief of staff of the armed forces, Mohamad Baqerí, warned “a harsh revenge “.
A suspected past
Fajrizadeh, who was currently head of the Defense Research and Innovation Organization at the Ministry of Defense, has a shadowy past.
According to Western intelligence, Fajrizadeh played a fundamental role in Iran’s secret program for the development of nuclear weapons, a hypothesis always denied by Tehran, which defends its civilian objective.
He was also identified in a UN report and sanctions resolutions of the international body because of his work in allegedly developing atomic weapons.
More recently, a couple of years ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused him of managing Iran’s nuclear program which, according to Tel Aviv, did not stop in 2003.
Tehran’s denial of this possibility goes even further, denying that Fajrizadeh had any connection with atomic activities.
Indeed, Iranian Atomic Energy Organization spokesman Behruz Kamalvandí said today that “no nuclear scientist” has died.
An agreement in question
To prevent Tehran from seizing the atomic bomb, an agreement was signed in July 2015 between Iran and six major powers to limit its nuclear program, in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.
This agreement, known as JCPOA in its acronym in English, has been severely weakened since the United States withdrew and reset sanctions on Iran, which has responded by reducing compliance with its commitments.
This assassination comes at a time of relative hope for the pact thanks to Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over the US presidency, who appears more favorable to diplomacy and a return to the JCPOA.
However, Israel, which had a seamless ally in Trump, has always spoken out against the deal and accused Tehran of having a secret program to produce atomic bombs.
Netanyahu himself recently stated that “we cannot go back to the nuclear deal” and that we must adhere to “an uncompromising policy to ensure that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons”.
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