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Friday, it was the weekend in Iran, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and his wife wanted to visit their in-laws. He was traveling in his black Nissan, headed to the relatives’ villa in the small town of Absard, about 60 kilometers east of Tehran, according to Iranian media.
His bodyguards drove behind him. An empty Nissan was parked on the street in front of them. A Hyundai with four people was waiting a little further across the street. Fahrizadeh’s killer probably wanted the noose to be wrapped around him.
“It was like in a movie,” writes Javad Mogouyi, documentary filmmaker for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, on social media. According to Mogouyi, an automatic machine gun was installed in the empty Nissan. He fired when Fahrizadeh’s car approached.
Fahrizadeh’s column stopped, the scientist came down and was shot in the arms and legs, writes Mogouyi. Suddenly the empty Nissan was blown up with the remote ignition.
The four men waiting for the Hyundai immediately opened fire on Fahrizadeh and his bodyguards. In addition, eight other men who suddenly appeared on four motorcycles fired, for a total of twelve shooters. Fahrizadeh was shot several times and died shortly after in hospital. His wife survived injured.
“A successful team of twelve needs at least 50 people”
Fahrizadeh’s assassination means a severe blow to the Iranian regime. Not only does it lose the head of its nuclear program, it has also been effectively proven: all twelve shooters have managed to escape, and so far there are few useful traces for them.
The empty Nissan is said to be registered to an owner who hasn’t lived in Iran for a long time; Iranian media claimed that the parts of the seized weapons were of Israeli design. Also, the street cameras shouldn’t have worked at the time of the crime.
“A twelve-person attack team needs at least 50 people,” speculates revolutionary guard Javad Mogouyi about possible supporters. How is it possible for such a large group to operate unnoticed in the Iranian capital and even know exactly the family weekend planning of the most prominent Iranian nuclear scientist?
The Iranian regime blames Israel for the crime. And indeed there are some indications that support it.
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Reason: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in 2018 that the name Fakhrizadeh should be remembered – a threat that isn’t well hidden. Netanyahu’s government benefits most from this: Iran’s nuclear research program is unlikely to suffer much. But Tehran is now embarrassed and troubled: how deeply has spies penetrated its innermost apparatus?
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Capacity: It takes a lot of experience and well-placed agents to carry out such a complicated attack in the middle of enemy territory. Mossad has already demonstrated several times that it is capable of doing this in Iran, most recently this year with acts of sabotage against Iranian nuclear facilities and the murder of an al-Qaeda terrorist in the middle of Tehran – probably at the request of Washington. Furthermore, the Mossad killed many nuclear scientists in Iran years ago.
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Confession: There is no clear admission that this contradicts Israeli practice. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made hints over the weekend: he bragged about his achievements in recent days and added that he couldn’t mention a few.
Was the US government involved in the attack?
One can only speculate on this. Washington may have been informed in advance, especially as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was visiting Israel. From the perspective of Donald Trump’s US administration, Fahrizadeh’s assassination should pose an acceptable risk:
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It is a blatant provocation and cannot be justified by international law.
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But Trump has so far cared little about these aspects, not even when Iranian General Qasem Soleimani was assassinated in January.
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Furthermore, it would have been much more serious if Israel had launched a direct military attack on Iran’s nuclear program.
For Joe Biden’s upcoming US administration, however, action is fatal: the next president must return to the negotiating table with Iran as soon as possible if he is to still salvage the international nuclear deal with Iran.
This would require American courtesy and confidence-building measures: a targeted murder and possible hostile reactions from Iran make this difficult undertaking even more difficult.
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