Iran will wait for Biden govt
Iran has vowed that it won’t ‘‘fall into the trap’’ of scuppering any future talks with the incoming Biden government following the assassination of a top nuclear scientist.
‘‘Iran’s scientific and defence policies won’t change because of the assassination of one scientist or general,’’ government spokesman Ali Rabiei said in a statement yesterday posted on the government’s official website.
The Islamic republic ‘‘shouldn’t fall into the trap of linking the assassination to past nuclear negotiations’’, he said.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a veteran physicist who played a major role in Iran’s nuclear research and defence activities, was killed in a bombing and shooting ambush outside Tehran on Saturday.
Iran has blamed Israel, which had accused Fakhrizadeh of masterminding a secret nuclear bomb project and hasn’t com
mented on the allegation.
Underscoring the support for diplomacy, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that while ‘‘Iran and the US will continue to have fundamental differences,’’ the tension between Tehran and Washington needn’t continue after US President Donald Trump is out of office.
‘‘Under Trump’s presidency, Iran and US tensions rose to a 40-year peak. It seems unnecessary for this situation to continue,’’ Zarif told the Entekhab.
Both Israel and Trump oppose US President-elect Joe Biden’s intention to rejoin the Obama-era nuclear accord if Tehran – which denies bomb-making ambitions – also returns to full compliance.
Trump, who pulled the United States out of the deal in 2018 and imposed crippling sanctions on Iran, considered attacking the country during his last few weeks in office but was dissuaded by senior aides, The New York Times reported.
The killing of Fakhrizadeh, who will be buried in Tehran today, could also complicate a return to the accord.
‘‘This assassination will not remain unanswered, but our response won’t come at a time, place or shape they expect,’’ Rabiei said, referring to Israel and the US. ‘‘Iran sets the time and the place.’’
Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Admiral Mike Mullen, said the assassination will make it more difficult for Biden to re-enter the nuclear agreement with Iran.
‘‘Fakhrizadeh was at the heart of the Iranian nuclear programme,’’ he said. ‘‘Not only the brains but also the passion behind it, so his assassination is really a significant event.’’
Mullen added he was hopeful that Biden ‘‘can actually reach in and calm the waters, but I think this heightens tension significantly.’’