Iran buries slain nuclear scientist
Leaders promise revenge for assassination
BEIRUT• Amid vows to avenge slain scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran's leadership promised Monday to push ahead with its nuclear program while casting doubt on the future of negotiations with the West.
Fakhrizadeh's assassination — and the pressure now on Iran's leadership to retaliate after an embarrassing security failure — could undermine president-elect Joe Biden's pledge to return to a negotiated nuclear deal with Iran and world powers. President Donald Trump left the pact while ratcheting up economic sanctions and pressures on Iran.
Iran has blamed Israel for Fakhrizadeh's death, which has elevated uncertainty in the region after Iranian leaders pledged a “definitive punishment” and to respond “at the right time.”
“Some say through dialogue and negotiations actions can be taken in order to put an end to such hostility,” Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in a statement read at Fakhrizadeh's funeral by a representative, according to a translation by Iranian state television. “This is not possible because our enemies oppose the nature of the Islamic Republic establishment. ... They will never put an end to their hostilities toward us.”
Fakhrizadeh was a driving force behind an Iranian effort to build a nuclear weapon, an effort that U.S. intelligence says was abandoned nearly two decades ago. His role in Iran's current nuclear power programs involving reactors and uranium enrichment was less direct.
Israel has not officially commented on the Friday attack in keeping with its policy of not speaking out on security matters.
Iranian media and officials have reported conflicting accounts of the midday Friday ambush of Fakhrizadeh and his security team. Reports, citing eyewitnesses, initially said that a car bomb went off and that a firefight broke out between his bodyguards and up to 12 assassins who escaped.
The Fars News Agency, which is close to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported Sunday that no attackers were present and that the perpetrators instead used a remote-controlled machine gun. Iran's English-language Press TV added Monday that a weapon with an Israeli logo was located at the scene.
The scientist was buried in Tehran in a ceremony attended by Iranian officials and family but closed to the public because of coronavirus-related restrictions.
In his statement Monday, Khamenei vowed to “find the perpetrators of the plot and follow up on his (Fakhrizadeh's) research efforts.”