Earlier in the day, reports emerged in Iranian media that a high-profile nuclear physicist had been assassinated in the north of Iran.
The Iranian Defence Ministry has confirmed earlier media reports that a high-ranking nuclear physicist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, has been killed. 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.
https://twitter.com/amirhatami_ir/status/1332344457405095936
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.
ترور دانشمندان هستهای آشکارترین تقابل خشن نظام سلطه برای جلوگیری از دستیابی ما به علوم مدرن است.
— حسین سلامی (@salamy_ir) November 27, 2020
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.
Reactions:
This assassination will have a chilling effect on Iran’s political space; the atmosphere will be even more securitized, civil society and political opposition will be pressured even more, and the anti-West discourse will be strengthened in Iran’s upcoming presidential election.
— Negar Mortazavi (@NegarMortazavi) November 27, 2020
NYT summarizes the “chilling message” that “American officials” want to send to Iranian top nuclear scientists with today’s assassination: “If we can get him, we can get you, too.” Indistinguishable from Mafia talk. pic.twitter.com/6Ub84mR3e0
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) November 27, 2020
Killing Iranian scientists is terrorism.
And apartheid Israel has a long history of killing Iranian scientists.
Imagine if it were an American or European scientist who was killed. Western governments & corporate media outlets would immediately call it terrorism. Because it is.
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) November 27, 2020
Typical Israeli cowardly act – commit murder & then duck under American petticoat! Netanyahu is mortally scared of being marched off to jail for stealing public money… But it's about time Iran develops nuclear deterrent & puts this puny country in its corner. https://t.co/gsCaiqeVP2
— M. K. Bhadrakumar (@BhadraPunchline) November 27, 2020
If Iran had killed a top Israeli nuclear scientist, then the media would have stated that #Iran was guilty of an act of war but watch the Western media spin this assassination—as they did with the assassination of Gen. Soleimani, as necessary. https://t.co/Qyz8CohXTI
— Pouya Alimagham پويا عالي مقام (@iPouya) November 27, 2020
From the novel Greenmantle: "There's dry wind blowing through east; and dry grasses await spark:" Iran's unfinished retribution for Suleimani; this latest assassination; Trump Administration's itchy trigger finger in its last days; Israel's growing concern about Biden and Iran. https://t.co/aTVE1RfE4r
— Aaron David Miller (@aarondmiller2) November 27, 2020
This is outrageous. Any nation would consider this an act of war. Imagine if Iran had murdered an Israeli scientist. A direct attempt by Bibi to block Biden's diplomacy with Iran (best case) or provoke a war. It will do nothing to set back Iran's program. https://t.co/L6MHRKddvA
— Joe Cirincione (@Cirincione) November 27, 2020
New kids on the block wouldn't know this is nothing new. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei himself has been a victim, what to speak of a scientist! This is not about respect- or lack of it – for Iran, either. This is about triggering a war before Pompeo retires. https://t.co/tkbV314RKd
— M. K. Bhadrakumar (@BhadraPunchline) November 27, 2020
Fakhrizadeh was to Iran’s nuclear program what Soleimani was to its proxy network. He was instrumental to its development and the creation of an infrastructure to support it, ensuring that his death won’t fundamentally alter the course of Iran’s nuclear program. https://t.co/vt4zKB6rmQ
— Ariane Tabatabai (@ArianeTabatabai) November 27, 2020
Assassinating a scientist isn’t an act of self defense or nat’l security. Call it what it is: *terrorism*
Just imagine if #Iran did this, it would be rightly called an act of war. Now remember the people who have been pushing for war w/Iran, they’ve always been the real threat. https://t.co/8ghn5XpQXQ
— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) November 27, 2020
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 (@JZarif) November 27, 2020
Come on @nytimes … This tweet is extremely misleading. They don’t have a nuclear “weapons” program and you know that. Fix your damn headline. https://t.co/o8GRj0WpSh
— Deborah Britton-Nabi (@blondeintehran) November 27, 2020
Notice how western media mimics the propaganda of their regimes in order to justify terrorism & murder in the Global South? pic.twitter.com/GXcPd4FiJA
— Seyed Mohammad Marandi (@s_m_marandi) November 27, 2020
Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program. It has a civilian enrichment program, making fuel for its Bushehr reactor. This inexcusably shoddy reporting in NYT is the kind of thing that got us into the Iraq War https://t.co/bC4IEApdak
— Juan Cole (@jricole) November 27, 2020
No @nytimes, #Iran does *NOT* have a nuclear weapons program.
Iran is still abiding by many of the nuclear deal’s constraints. It’s also never accumulated bombs-grade uranium or plutonium or built a warhead.
Please show us you learned from the lies leading up to the Iraq War. pic.twitter.com/xjGYu4Wf4L
— Sina Toossi (@SinaToossi) November 27, 2020
Key: Whether Iran attributes attacks. Often, it is reluctant to publicly identify perpetrators if it doesn't want to box itself into responding–that was the case w/ Natanz incident. But when it plans to respond (see Soleimani), it points finger (it seems on track to do so here). https://t.co/3OFQgLQuUj
— Ariane Tabatabai (@ArianeTabatabai) November 27, 2020
Spokesman for Iranian Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Commission said that assassination of nuclear scientists does not set back #Iran’s #Nuclear program.https://t.co/fIh7wnhPHH
— Mehr News Agency (@MehrnewsCom) November 27, 2020
It’s very simple. Maximum pressure has been a maximum failure, so on their way out the door Trump, Bibi, and their swarm of hawks will do anything they can to poison the well of diplomacy before @JoeBiden gets a chance to clean up their mess.
— Stephen Miles (@SPMiles42) November 27, 2020
Photo of #Iran's slain nuclear scientists circulating in Persian media. Anti-clockwise:
1) Majid Shahriari (29 Nov, 2010)
2) Masoud AliMohammadi (12 Jan, 2010)
3) Dariush Rezaeinejad (23 July, 2011)
4) Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan (11 Jan, 2012)And Mohsen #Fakhrizadeh (27 Nov, 2020) pic.twitter.com/o7vhfza5ZU
— Maysam Behravesh میثم بهروش (@MaysamBehravesh) November 27, 2020