Tehran | Senior Iranian nuclear scientist assassinated on Friday while in his vehicle near Tehran, Iranian foreign minister accusing Israel of playing a “role” in this “terrorist act” .
“Terrorists today murdered a prominent Iranian scientist. This cowardice – with serious indications of Israel’s role – shows the desperate warmongering of its perpetrators, ”tweeted Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iranian Foreign Minister.
The head of diplomacy also called on the international community to “put an end to its shameful ambivalent positions and to condemn this terrorist act”.
The Ministry of Defense had shortly before identified the victim as Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, head of the research and innovation department of the ministry.
He was “seriously injured” when his car was targeted by several attackers, who were in turn taken to task by the scientist’s security team, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the medical team had failed to revive him.
Mr. Fakhrizadeh had been described by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the father of Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Several local media, including the Tasnim and Fars news agencies, had earlier reported an assassination attempt against the scientist in the town of Absard, east of the Iranian capital.
“Terrorists blew up a car before shooting Mr. Fakhrizadeh’s car,” they said. Tasnim specified “still await official information” on his state of health.
This assassination comes less than two months before the arrival at the White House of Democrat Joe Biden, president elected in the November 3 election in the United States.
Biden intends to change posture vis-à-vis Iran after four years as President of Republican Donald Trump, who withdrew from the agreement with the great powers signed in Vienna in 2015 on the nuclear program from Tehran. The United States then reinstated and then tightened the sanctions against Iran.