Tehran | Tehran on Sunday reflects on its response after the assassination, attributed to Israel, of a prominent Iranian nuclear physicist, to whom the authorities pay special religious tribute before his burial on Monday.
• Read also: Iran accuses Israel of murder of nuclear scientist
In parliament, MPs unanimously signed a call to avenge the scientist and pass a law that would stop Iran from allowing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect its nuclear facilities.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed on Friday in a vehicle bomb attack followed by a shootout against his car, according to the Iranian defense ministry, which presented the victim as the head of its research and innovation department, responsible in particular for the “atomic defense”.
Israel presented him as the head of a secret military nuclear program, which Tehran has always denied.
After a special ceremony in two of the main Shiite holy places in Iran (in Mashhad, in the northeast, and in Qom, in the center), his remains were to pass through the mausoleum of Imam-Khomeini, in Tehran, for a new tribute.
According to state television, the funeral is scheduled for Monday in Qom.
Iran has accused Israel of being behind Fakhrizadeh’s death.
President Hassan Rouhani said the Hebrew state was seeking to sow “chaos” and promised a “timely” response.
But he also warned that Iran would not fall into the “trap” set according to him by Israel.
Since the announcement of Joe Biden’s victory in the American presidential election, Mr. Rouhani has multiplied the signs of openness, showing his will to save the nuclear agreement.
This international pact offers Tehran relief from international sanctions in exchange for guarantees, verified by the IAEA, intended to attest to the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program.
US President Donald Trump, who made Iran his pet peeve, unilaterally pulled his country out of the deal in 2018, three years after the pact was signed in Vienna that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not ‘has stopped fighting.
“Deterrence” and “revenge”
Sanctions imposed or reimposed by Washington plunged the Iranian economy into a deep recession and prompted Iran to suspend the application of most of its commitments, but not the access granted to IAEA inspectors.
Mr. Biden has said he wants to bring the United States back into the Vienna accord.
But he will have little time between taking office [le 20 janvier] and the Iranian presidential [le 18 juin], for which the conservatives left favorites after their landslide victory in the February legislative elections at the expense of the alliance of moderates and reformers supporting Mr. Rohani.
Sunday morning, the Speaker of Parliament, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, pleaded for “a strong reaction” likely to ensure “deterrence” and “revenge”.
A communiqué signed by all the deputies judges that “the best response” to the acts of “terrorism and sabotage” of Israel, the United States and their allies, is to “revive the glorious nuclear industry of Iran” by ceasing to apply the IAEA additional protocol.
Under the terms of the Vienna Agreement, Tehran agreed to comply with the requirements of this document providing for unrestricted access for IAEA inspectors to its nuclear facilities, even before its ratification by Parliament.
Since Friday, the most conservative Iranians have been shouting haro at Agency inspectors.
“Not only will we ban their visits, but also their talks with experts or scientists,” MP Mahmoud Nabavian told the Tasnim agency.
According to him, Fakhrizadeh could have been “identified” by “the enemy” either by “intelligence work” or by “interviews” that he could have given to the IAEA, and we must “cut off all channels. Allowing Iranian scientists to be targeted.
But Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, told the official Irna news agency on Saturday that the issue of inspectors’ access should be “decided at the highest levels”, suggesting that this was not the responsibility of the deputies.
In a violent editorial, the ultraconservative newspaper Kayhan called for an attack on the Israeli port of Haifa in order to “totally destroy its infrastructure” and to kill many people if it is “proven” that Israel is behind Fakhrizadeh’s death.