Iranian authorities termed the killing as an assassination and blaming Israel for the attack. Hassan Rouhani, Iranian president said that Mohsen Fakhrizadeh’s killing has revealed Iran’s enemies’ hatred and despair.
Hussein Deghan, a military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, said he will take revenge on Mohsen Fakhrizadeh’s killers in such a way that they will regret on this day.
Defence Ministry of Iran said that Fakhrizadeh was targeted in a firing attack, on Friday evening in Absard town of Iranian capital, Tehran.
According to the Fars news agency report, there was also a car explosion in the same area after the ambush. The news agency further said that witnesses reported three to four persons, “who are said to have been terrorists,” were killed in car blast. It is still not clear what happened to the armed men after the attack.
Fakhrizadeh was a well known nuclear scientist and head of the research center of new technology in the elite Revolutionary Guards. Due to being considered the most prominent figure in Iran’s nuclear programme, he was also called the father and the Iranian bomb.
Israeli authorities have not commented on the matter yet, but Israel has previously mentioned Fakhrizadeh’s involvement in a covert nuclear weapons programme.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif, on his official twitter account stated, ”Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today,” and he called on the international community to “condemn this state terror act.”
Jawad Zarif termed the attack “Korean terrorism” and accused Israel of involvement.
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Majid Takht-e Ravanchi, said the killing violated international laws. The aim was to spread chaos in the region.
The attack comes at a time when newly elected US President Joe Biden has announced that he will resume talks with Iran after becoming the official president in January, while Israel has strongly opposed the announcement.
Iran’s 2015 deal with US, UK France, Germany, Russia and China limited its uranium production but reportedly Iran has been breaching the deal terms since 2018, when President Donald Trump called off the deal.
As per the International Atomic Energy Agency or IAEA, Iran has been producing larger amount of uranium than permitted in 2015’s deal.