Report: Iran scientist killed by 1-tonne gun smuggled in parts

Slamming the Biden administration for mirroring the Trump era approach of the US towards Iran

JERUSALEM: Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed in November by a onetonne gun smuggled into Iran in pieces by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, according to a report by The Jewish Chronicle.

Citing intelligence sources, the British weekly reported on Wednesday that a team of more than 20 agents, including Israeli and Iranian nationals, carried out the ambush on Fakhrizadeh near Tehran, after eight months of surveillance.

Iranian media said Fakhrizadeh died in hospital after armed assassins gunned him down in his car. Shortly after his death, Iran pointed the finger at Israel, with foreign minister Javad Zarif writing on Twitter of “serious indications of (an) Israeli role.”

Israel has consistently declined to comment.

Fakhrizadeh, 59, was long suspected by the West of masterminding a secret nuclear bomb programme.

He had been described by Western and Israeli intelligence services for years as the mysterious leader of a covert atomic bomb programme halted in 2003, which Israel and the US accuse Tehran of trying to restore. Iran has long denied seeking to weaponise nuclear energy.

UN: Iran makes uranium metal in new deal breach

Iran has carried out its plan to produce uranium metal, the UN atomic watchdog confirmed on Wednesday, despite Western powers’ warning that it would breach their 2015 nuclear deal as uranium metal can be used to make the core of an atom bomb.

Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency in December it planned to produce uranium metal fuel for a research reactor. IAEA said it verified 3.6 gram of uranium metal at Iran’s plant in Esfaha.