Call for Iran to launch retaliatory attack on Israeli port
Anopinion piece published yesterday by a hard-line Iranian newspaper urged Iran to attack the Israeli port city of Haifa if Israel carried out the killing of the scientistwhofounded the Islamic Republic’s military nuclear programme in the early 2000s.
Though the hard-line Kayhan newspaper has long argued for aggressive retaliation for operations targeting Iran, yesterday’s opinion piece went further, suggesting any assault be carried out in away that destroys facilities and “also causes heavyhumancasualties”.
Israel, suspected of killing Iranian nuclear scientists over the past decade, has not commented on the brazen slaying of Mohsen
Fakhrizadeh. Amilitary-style ambush on Saturday on the outskirts of Tehran reportedly saw a truckbombexplode andgunmenopen fire on the scientist, killing him and a bodyguard.
Usintelligence agencies andun nuclear inspectors have said the organised military nuclear programme that Fakhrizadeh oversaw disbanded in 2003.
Israel claims Iran still maintains the ambition of developing nuclear weapons.
Kayhan published the piece written by Iranian analyst Sadollah Zarei, who argued Iran’s previous responses to suspected Israeli airstrikes that killed Revolutionary Guard forces in Syria did not go far enough to deter Israel.
Hesaid an assault on Haifa also needed to be greater than Iran’s ballistic missile attack against American troops in Iraq following the Usdrone strike in Baghdad that killed a top Iranian general in January.
Striking the Israeli city of Haifa and killing a large number of people “will definitely lead to deterrence, because the United States and the Israeli regime and its agents are by no means ready to take part in awar and a military confrontation”, Zarei wrote.
While Kayhan is a small circulation newspaper, its editor-in-chief Hossein Shariatmadari was appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and has been described as an adviser to him in the past.
Haifa, on the Mediterranean Sea, has been threatened in the past by both Iran and one of its proxies, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, is hometo a major port and power plant.
Such a strike likely would draw an immediate Israeli retaliation and spark awider conflict across the Mideast.
The Iranian parliament yesterday held a closed-door hearing about Fakhrizadeh’s killing. Afterward, parliament speakermohammadbaqer Ghalibaf said Iran’s enemies must be madeto regret killing him.
“The criminal enemydoes not
regret it except with a strong reaction,” he said.
Apublic session of lawmakers saw them chant: “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”
They also began the review of a bill that would stop inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The nuclear watchdog has provided an unprecedented, real-time look at Iran’s civilian nuclear program following the country’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
The deal has unraveled afterus President Donald Trump’s unilateral 2018 withdrawal from the accord. Iran’s atomic programme has since increased its experiments andnow enriches a growing uranium stockpile up to 4.5 per cent purity.
That’s still far below weapons-grade levels of90 per cent, though experts
warn Irannowhas enough lowenriched uranium to reprocess into fuel for at least two atomic bombsif it chose to pursue them. The proposed bill reportedly also would require Iran’s civilian atomic programme to produce at least 120kg of uranium enriched to 20 per cent— a short technical step to90per cent.
Iran’s 290-seat parliament is dominated by hard-linerswholikely would support the bill.
Fakhrizadeh’s killing likely complicates the plans ofuspresidentelect Joe Biden, whohas said his administration will consider reentering Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers. It also raises the risk of an open conflict in Trump’s final weeks in office, as any retaliation could provoke an American military response, Yadlin said.