Gunned-down Iranian nuclear scientist was an Israeli target for years
BEIRUT — He was one of Iran's preeminent nuclear scientists, the country's answer to Robert Oppenheimer, the American physicist who led the U.S.'s effort to build a nuclear bomb during World War II.
As an officer in Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards and a physics professor in Tehran, Mohsen FakhrizadehMahabadi was involved for decades in the upper echelons of the nation's secret nuclear weapons program. Western intelligence agencies contend he led Project 111, which aimed to develop a missile cone capable of delivering nuclear payloads for Iran's arsenal, even as Tehran insisted its nuclear program was peaceful.
That influence and expertise made him a prized target for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, which is widely believed to have been behind yearslong assassination plots against Iran's nuclear scientists. Since 2010, that campaign had felled several of Fakhrizadeh's colleagues. On Friday afternoon, it appeared to have claimed him as well when gunmen ambushed his car on a highway outside Tehran.
The semi-official Fars News Agency reported Fakhrizadeh was killed near the resort town of Absard, some 35 miles east of Tehran. As his car was driving near an exit ramp on Mostafa Khomeini Boulevard, another car exploded. It was followed by a shootout between gunmen — who peppered Fakhrizadeh's black Nissan Tiana with bullets — and the scientist's security team.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif condemned the attack and blamed Israel: "Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today," he tweeted on Friday. "This cowardice — with serious indications of Israeli role — shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators."
Whoever is behind the plot, it is likely to complicate efforts by President-elect Joe Biden to resuscitate talks with Iran and re-enter the landmark nuclear accord President Trump left in 2018. It also comes in the waning days of the Trump administration, which, in concert with Israel, has vowed to keep maximum pressure on Tehran in the coming weeks while complicating any attempt by Biden to reverse its policies.
That killing is certain to rattle Iran similar to the U.S. drone strike in January that killed Maj. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, head of the elite Quds Force and architect of many of Iran's covert operations, including financing, training and arming terrorist groups and militias across the Middle East. Suleimani, who was revered by Ayatollah Khamenei and a popular figure in Iran, spurred Tehran to retaliate by launching ballistic missiles on an American base in Iraq, causing traumatic brain injuries to scores of U.S. service members.
Such assassinations have not deterred Iran's nuclear ambitions — and may have accelerated their development. Tehran has been accused of breaching uranium stockpile limits set in the nuclear agreement, in what it framed as an appropriate response to the U.S. scuttling of the deal and Washington's sanctions campaign. Earlier this month, it admitted it had fired up its Uranium-enriching centrifuges at the underground plant at Natanz — a further violation of the accords.
Fakhrizadeh killers ambushed him at a place where there would be less traffic than usual, with Iranians on the first day of their weekend and under partial lockdown because of COVID-19 restrictions. The area is known for its luxury villas, where rich Tehranis go for a weekend to escape the capital's pollution.
Video posted on social media purported to show a helicopter transporting Fakhrizadeh to a nearby hospital for treatment. But he later succumbed to his wounds, according to a statement from the Iranian Ministry of Defense.