A leading Iranian nuclear scientist has been assassinated by unidentified gunmen on the outskirts of the capital Tehran on Friday, the country’s foreign minister said.
“Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today. This cowardice—with serious indications of Israeli role—shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators.
“Iran calls on int'l community—and especially EU—to end their shameful double standards & condemn this act of state terror,” Javad Zarif said on Twitter.
The incident took place in Damavand county at 2:30 p.m. local time (1100GMT) when Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was traveling in his private vehicle accompanied by family members, according to sources.
In a statement, the Iranian Defense Ministry confirmed the assassination, and said: "Armed terrorists attacked the car carrying head of the Research and Innovation Organization of the Ministry of Defense Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on Friday."
The assailants reportedly blew up a vehicle ahead of Fakhrizadeh's car before shooting indiscriminately at him, leaving him and others in the car severely wounded.
The top nuclear scientist was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital but he eventually succumbed to his wounds, sources said. His bodyguard is said to be in critical condition.
It is still not clear how many people were killed or injured in the attack that happened at the entrance of mountainous Absard city.
It's the second high-profile targeted killing of a top Iranian official after IRGC Quds Force chief Gen. Qassem Soleimani's killing in a US airstrike in January this year.
Fakhrizadeh's killing came on the eve of the assassination anniversary of another top Iranian nuclear scientist Majid Shahriari, who was killed in 2010.
He had survived a few assassination bids in the past.
Following the killing of many nuclear scientists in recent years, Fakhrizadeh had been under a protective shield of Iranian security agencies. His pictures were also not published in the media despite his high-profile status.
Iran had also refused requests of the UN nuclear watchdog body to interview him in an attempt to keep him away from media arc lights.
Fakhrizadeh has also taught physics at Imam Hossein University in Tehran, which is tied to the revolutionary guards (IRGC).
Iran's Zarif Hints at Israeli Role in Nuclear Scientist's Killing
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif suspects that Israel was involved in the killing of one of Iran's top nuclear scientists.
"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," Zarif tweeted.
Zarif did not immediately provide evidence regarding the extent of what he suspected to be Israeli involvement in Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi's killing.
However, earlier, Iranian media and Western commentators pointed to alleged Israeli and US support for the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran, a terrorist group promoting the overthrow of Iran's government which recently claimed that the nuclear scientist had been involved in a clandestine nuclear weapons programme operated by the Revolutionary Guard.
In 2018, during a presentation lobbying the Trump administration to pull out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear agreement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu singled out Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi, claiming he was the head of a secret unit inside the Iranian military working to build a nuke.
Israel has been accused of assassinating multiple Iranian nuclear scientists over the years, with at least five scientists killed and two surviving attacks carried out between 2007 and 2015.
Israeli officials have yet to comment on the nuclear scientist's death.
In a press release, the ministry says they are treating Fakhrizadeh's assassination as a terror attack.
"Today, in the afternoon, armed terrorists attacked the head of research and innovation at the Defence Ministry. As his security guards and terrorists clashed, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was seriously injured and hospitalised," the press service said in a statement adding that he died in the hospital despite efforts to resuscitate him.
Iran's Defence Minister, Amir Hatami, said on Twitter that the nuclear physicist's death shows how very deeply Iran's enemies hate its citizens.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has refused to comment on the nuclear physicist's assassination.
Earlier, Rajanews reported that the scientist had been assassinated in Iran's Damavand County in the city of Absard.
Iranian social media users shared photos and videos from the alleged scene of the assassination, claiming they heard an explosion and a barrage of fire in the area.
Iran Revolutionary Guards Commander, Hossein Salami, has taken to Twitter to condemn the assassination of nuclear scientists, which he believes is being done to prevent Iran from gaining access to modern science.
Earlier, the screenshot of a tweet by Hossein Salami circulated in social media, in which he vowed to avenge the killings of Iranian scientists. However, the authenticity of the post cannot be confirmed as this tweet is absent from Salami's page.
The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran earlier rejected reports of the nuclear physicist's assassination in the country, the ISNA reported Friday. The spokesperson for the organisation stated that all scientists in the country's nuclear industry were safe and in good health.
Who is Mohsen Fakhrizadeh?
The nuclear physicist, also known as Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi, was a physics professor at the Imam Hussein University in Tehran as well as a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
The International Atomic Energy Agency in its report "Final Assessment on Past and Present Outstanding Issues regarding Iran’s Nuclear Programme", dated 2 December 2015, named Fakhrizadeh as the leader of the so-called AMAD programme. The project, purportedly launched in the late Eighties and ended in 2003, allegedly aimed to develop nuclear warheads. Israel, in particular, claimed that Iran never stopped the work under the programme. In 2018, Netanyahu unveiled alleged Iranian nuclear archives in a presentation in which he mentioned Fakhrizadeh, referring to him as the AMAD project head.
Iran has repeatedly denied having any military nuclear programme, stressing that the atomic energy is used exclusively for peaceful purposes.
Returning to the Nuclear Deal
Iran has long maintained that it has no intention of pursuing nuclear weapons, and indicated that its nuclear activities are related strictly to the pursuit of civilian nuclear energy to help wean the country off of fossil fuels. Iranian officials have also repeatedly criticised the US and Israel over their alleged 'concerns' about the Islamic Republic's nuclear activities, suggesting that neither Washington - the only state to have used nuclear weapons against another country, nor Tel Aviv - the only country in the Middle East with a confirmed nuclear arsenal, have the right to 'lecture' Tehran on non-proliferation.
On Sunday, Netanyahu warned the next US administration not to return to the JCPOA, and urged Washington to "stick to an uncompromising policy to ensure that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons." On Wednesday, Axios reported that the Israeli Defence Forces had been instructed to prepare for a possible US strike on Iran before President Trump's expected departure from office in January. Earlier this month, former Trump national security adviser H.R. McMaster said he couldn't rule out that Israel may initiate strikes on Iran after Trump is gone.