TEHRAN — A leading Iranian nuclear researcher, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was assassinated near the capital Tehran on Friday, Iran’s Defense Ministry revealed.
In the West, Fakhrizadeh was typically described as Iran’s Robert Oppenheimer, the American researcher who assisted dad the atomic bomb in 1945. He is a widely known senior figure and thought about amongst the most crucial Iranian nuclear researchers in the nation.
Fakhrizadeh has actually long been thought by the West to have actually masterminded what they stated was a hidden atomic bomb program stopped in 2003. Iran has actually regularly rejected looking for to weaponize atomic energy.
Soon after the statement, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter that “terrorists” had actually killed an “eminent Iranian scientist.”
“This cowardice — with serious indications of Israeli role — shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators,” Zarif composed, describing Iran’s arch-enemy. “Iran calls on international community — and especially E.U. — to end their shameful double standards and condemn this act of state terror.”
A spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s workplace informed NBC News they were “not commenting” on the news.
State media reported that Fakhrizadeh passed away in an attack in the Absard location of the province of Damavand, about 40 miles east of Tehran.
NBC News has not individually verified any information surrounding Fakhrizadeh’s death. No group has actually instantly declared duty for the attack.
Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics
At least 5 Iranian nuclear researchers have actually been eliminated considering that 2007, mainly in significant style, with motorcycle-borne attackers and car-bombs, U.S. authorities formerly informed NBC News.
And in January, President Donald Trump bought the assassination of among Iran’s leading military generals, Qassem Soliemani.
The leader of the deceptive Quds force, a branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Soliemani was eliminated when a U.S. drone targeted his motorcade in Baghdad on Jan. 3. Iran struck back less than a week later on by shooting rockets at American soldiers in Iraq.
The fight intensified stress in between Tehran and Washington, which had actually currently torn when Trump in 2018 withdrew the U.S. from a landmark nuclear contract in between Iran and world powers.
Iran has actually likewise been been at chances with local next-door neighbors such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for several years.
Many in Israel think about Iran an existential danger, and Netanyahu has actually made Iran a leading concern in his period, implicating Tehran of looking for to establish nuclear weapons, comparing it to Nazi Germany and pressing U.S. administrations not to sign — and later on to withdraw from — the nation’s 2015 nuclear handle world powers.
He has actually likewise been a supporter for direct military action versus Iran and sometimes was checked by leading generals.
In 2018, Netanyahu offered a discussion in which he revealed what he referred to as product taken by Israel from an Iranian nuclear archive and revealed a picture of Fakhrizadeh.
“This is how Dr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, head of Project Amad … Remember that name, Fakhrizadeh,” Netanyahu stated.
Ali Arouzi reported from Tehran, Adela Suliman reported from London.
Reuters and The Associated Press added to this report.
Saphora Smith and Paul Goldman contributed.
