Father of IRI Nuclear Bomb Assassinated: Mohsen Fakhrizadeh Down
Senior IRI Nuclear Scientist Dead
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh Down and Out*
VideosSenior Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh assassinated – Sky Newshttps://youtu.be/rY9sdQIE95oMohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran's top nuclear scientist, assassinated near Tehran - BBC Newshttps://youtu.be/4-x4sLgZyGsIranian officials say country’s top nuclear scientist was killed near Tehran - FOXhttps://youtu.be/GJFXAT2VeJc*
ArticlesIran Confirms Top Nuclear Scientist Assassinated in TehranBreitbart News
https://www.breitbart.com/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.”
“Eyewitness accounts confirmed that Fakhrizadeh’s car came under attack first by a blast and then by two terrorist teams who sprayed bullets at his car as they moving in opposite directions. Eyewitnesses also said three to four individuals, most likely all terrorists, have been killed in the attack,” Fars reported, stating that at least two other dead bodies were spotted at the hospital.
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.
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Iran's supreme leader vows revenge over slain scientistIranian leaders and authorities blame Israel for the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh
FOX News
https://www.foxnews.com/TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's supreme leader on Saturday demanded the “definitive punishment” of those behind the killing of a scientist who led Tehran's disbanded military nuclear program, as the Islamic Republic blamed Israel for a slaying that has raised fears of reignited tensions across the Middle East.
After years of being in the shadows, the image of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh suddenly was to be seen everywhere in Iranian media, as his widow spoke on state television and officials publicly demanded revenge on Israel for the scientist's slaying.
Israel, long suspected of killing Iranian scientists a decade ago amid earlier tensions over Tehran’s nuclear program, has yet to comment on Fakhrizadeh's killing Friday. However, the attack bore the hallmarks of a carefully planned, military-style ambush, the likes of which Israel has been accused of conducting before.
https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews. ... ?ve=1&tl=1In this picture released by the official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, right, sits in a meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 23, 2019. Fakhrizadeh, an Iranian scientist that Israel alleged led the Islamic Republic's military nuclear program until its disbanding in the early 2000s was killed in a targeted attack that saw gunmen use explosives and machine gun fire Friday Nov. 27, 2020, state television said. Two others are unidentified. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)The attack has renewed fears of Iran striking back against the U.S., Israel's closest ally in the region, as it did earlier this year when a U.S. drone strike killed a top Iranian general. The U.S. military acknowledged moving an aircraft carrier back into the region, while an Iranian lawmaker suggested throwing out U.N. nuclear inspectors in response to the killing.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Fakhrizadeh “the country’s prominent and distinguished nuclear and defensive scientist.” Khamenei, who has the final say on all matters of state, said Iran’s first priority after the killing was the “definitive punishment of the perpetrators and those who ordered it.” He did not elaborate.
Speaking earlier Saturday, President Hassan Rouhani blamed Israel for the killing.
https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews. ... ?ve=1&tl=1This photo released by the semi-official Fars News Agency shows the scene where Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed in Absard, a small city just east of the capital, Tehran, Iran, Friday, Nov. 27, 2020. Fakhrizadeh, an Iranian scientist that Israel alleged led the Islamic Republic's military nuclear program until its disbanding in the early 2000s was “assassinated” Friday, state television said. (Fars News Agency via AP)“We will respond to the assassination of Martyr Fakhrizadeh in a proper time,” Rouhani said. “The Iranian nation is smarter than falling into the trap of the Zionists. They are thinking to create chaos.”
Both Rouhani and Khamenei said that Fakhrizadeh’s death would not stop the nuclear program. Iran’s civilian atomic program has continued its experiments and now enriches a growing uranium stockpile up to 4.5% purity in response to the collapse of Iran's nuclear deal after the U.S.' 2018 withdrawal from the accord.
That's still far below weapons-grade levels of 90%, though experts warn Iran now has enough low-enriched uranium for at least two atomic bombs if it chose to pursue them.
Analysts have compared Fakhrizadeh to being on par with Robert Oppenheimer, the scientist who led America's Manhattan Project in World War II that created the atom bomb.
https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews. ... ?ve=1&tl=1Two protesters burn the representation of the U.S. and Israeli flags as the others hold placards condemning inspections by the UN nuclear agency (IAEA) on Iran's nuclear activities and the country's nuclear talks with world powers during a gathering in front of Iranian Foreign Ministry on Saturday, Nov. 28, 2020 in Tehran. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is calling for “definitive punishment” of those behind killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the scientist linked to Tehran’s disbanded military nuclear program. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)Fakhrizadeh headed Iran’s so-called AMAD program that Israel and the West have alleged was a military operation looking at the feasibility of building a nuclear weapon. The International Atomic Energy Agency says that “structured program” ended in 2003. Iran long has maintained its nuclear program is peaceful.
Fakhrizadeh's widow appeared unnamed on state television in a black chador, saying his death would spark a thousand others to take up his work.
Hard-line Iranian media has begun circulating memorial images showing Fakhrizadeh standing alongside a machine-gun-cradling likeness of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, whom the U.S. killed in the January drone strike.
Soleimani's death led to Iran retaliating with a ballistic missile barrage that injured dozens of American troops, but Tehran also has the support of proxy forces across the Mideast that it can call upon. The Iranian Guard's naval forces routinely shadow and have tense encounters with U.S. Navy forces in the Persian Gulf as well.
https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews. ... ?ve=1&tl=1A group of protesters burn pictures of the U.S. President Donald Trump, top, and the President-elect Joe Biden in a gathering in front of Iranian Foreign Ministry on Saturday, Nov. 28, 2020, a day after the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh an Iranian scientist linked to the country's nuclear program by unknown assailants near Tehran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)Hours after the attack, the Pentagon announced it had brought the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier back into the Middle East, an unusual move as the carrier already spent months in the region. It cited the drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq as the reason for the decision, saying “it was prudent to have additional defensive capabilities in the region to meet any contingency.”
Iran has conducted attacks targeting Israeli interests abroad over the killing of its scientists, like in the case of the three Iranians recently freed in Thailand in exchange for a detained British-Australian academic.
Iran also could throw out inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, who have provided an unprecedented, realtime look at Iran's nuclear program since the deal. Nasrollah Pezhmanfar, a hard-line lawmaker, said a statement calling to expel the “IAEA's spy inspections” could be read Sunday, the parliament's official website quoted him as saying.
Friday’s attack happened in Absard, a village just east of the capital that is a retreat for the country's elite. 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. The precision of the attack led to the suspicion of Israel's Mossad intelligence service being involved. The CIA separately declined to comment on the attack Saturday.
State media has only said the attack killed Fakhrizadeh, though a statement Saturday from the European Union described the incident as killing “an Iranian government official and several civilians.” EU officials did not respond to requests for comment.
In Tehran, a small group of hard-line protesters burned images of Trump and President-elect Joe Biden, who has said his administration will consider reentering Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers. And while burning an American and Israeli flag, the hard-liners criticized Iran's foreign minister who helped negotiate the nuclear deal, showing the challenge ahead of Tehran if officials chose to come back the accord.
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Mohsen Fakhrizadeh: Iran blames Israel for killing top scientistBBC
https://www.bbc.com/Iran's president has blamed Israel for the killing of a top nuclear scientist on Friday, and said it would not slow down the country's nuclear programme.
Hassan Rouhani also said Iran would retaliate over Mohsen Fakhrizadeh's killing at a time of its choosing.
An Israeli cabinet minister said he had "no clue" who was behind the ambush by gunmen on Mr Fakhrizadeh's car.
Israel has previously accused the physicist of being key to a covert nuclear weapons programme.
Fakhrizadeh was Iran's most renowned nuclear scientist, who headed the ministry of defence's research and innovation organisation.
His killing threatens to escalate tensions over Iran's nuclear programme with the US and its close ally Israel.
How has Iran reacted?President Rouhani said on Saturday his country would respond "in due course" but that Fakhrizadeh's killing would not push Iran into making hasty decisions.
"Iran's enemies should know that the people of Iran and officials are braver than to leave this criminal act unanswered," he said in a televised cabinet meeting.
"In due time, they will answer for this crime," he added.
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpspr ... 7263-1.jpgMohsen Fakhrizadeh, pictured in an undated photo, was head of the ministry of defence's research and innovation organizationIn an earlier statement, the president accused the "the mercenaries of the oppressive Zionist regime" - referring to Israel - of being behind the attack.
"The assassination of martyr Fakhrizadeh shows our enemies' despair and the depth of their hatred... His martyrdom will not slow down our achievements."
Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also called for the "punishing" of the perpetrators of the attack "and those who commanded it", in a tweet on Saturday.
His military adviser, Hossein Dehghan, had earlier vowed to "strike" the attackers like thunder.
The New York Times quotes three US officials, including two intelligence officials, as saying Israel was behind the attack. But Israeli cabinet minister Tzachi Hanegbi said on Saturday that he had "no clue" who was behind the killing.
Fakhrizadeh's name was specifically mentioned in Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's presentation about Iran's nuclear programme in April 2018.
Israeli embassies around the world have been placed on high alert, according to Israel's N12 news website on Saturday.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on the international community to "condemn this act of state terror".
What's the context?News of the killing comes amid fresh concern about the increased amount of enriched uranium that Iran is producing. Enriched uranium is a vital component for both civil nuclear power generation and military nuclear weapons.
A 2015 deal with six world powers had placed limits on Iran's production of enriched uranium, but since US President Donald Trump abandoned the deal in 2018, Iran has been deliberately reneging on its agreements. However, it insists its nuclear programme is exclusively for peaceful purposes.
Joe Biden has pledged to re-engage with Iran when he becomes US president in January, despite long-standing opposition from Israel.
The former head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), John Brennan, said the killing of the scientist was a "criminal" and "highly reckless" act that risks inflaming conflict in the region.
In a series of tweets, he said Fakhrizadeh's death "risks lethal retaliation and a new round of regional conflict".
Mr Brennan added that he did not know "whether a foreign government authorised or carried out the murder of Fakhrizadeh".
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged restraint, while on Saturday a spokesman for Germany's foreign office called on all sides "to refrain from any steps that could lead to a further escalation of the situation".
"A few weeks before the new US administration takes office, it is important to preserve the scope for talks with Iran so that the dispute over Iran's nuclear programme can be resolved through negotiations," a statement said.
What happened to the scientist and why was he important?Iran's defence ministry said the leading scientist was seriously wounded after attackers targeted his car and exchanged fire with his bodyguards, in the town of Absard, to the east of Tehran, on Friday.
Fakhrizadeh later died from his injuries in hospital.
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpspr ... 0x2-nc.pngMapIt is not clear what happened to the perpetrators of the attack.Fakhrizadeh has long been spoken about by Western security sources as extremely powerful and instrumental in Iran's nuclear programme.
According to secret documents obtained by Israel in 2018, he led a programme to create nuclear weapons.
At the time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he identified Fakhrizadeh as the head scientist in the programme, and urged people to "remember that name".
In 2015, the New York Times compared him to J Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who directed the Manhattan Project that during World War Two produced the first atomic weapons.
A professor of physics, Fakhrizadeh is said to have led Project Amad, the alleged covert programme that was established in 1989 to research the potential for building a nuclear bomb.
It was shut down in 2003, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), though Mr Netanyahu said the documents retrieved in 2018 showed Fakhrizadeh led a programme which secretly continued Project Amad's work.
The IAEA (the United Nations' nuclear watchdog) has long wanted to speak to him as part of its investigations into Iran's nuclear programme.
Suspicions that Iran was using the programme as a cover to develop a nuclear bomb prompted the EU, US and UN to impose crippling sanctions in 2010.
Since President Trump abandoned the 2015 deal, tensions between the US and Iran have escalated, peaking in January with America's assassination of Gen Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds force.