Scientist ‘killed by remote device’
ISRAEL assassinated a top Iranian nuclear scientist with a remotely controlled device, the head of Iran's national security council said yesterday, appearing to contradict earlier official accounts of a roadside ambush.
“The enemy used a completely new, professional and specialised method and technique,” said Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said. “The operation was very complex and used electronic devices, and no one was present at the scene.”
A senior Iranian official said an opposition group was suspected alongside Israel in the killing of a prominent Iranian nuclear scientist, in the attack that has raised the prospect of a new stand-off between Tehran and its longtime enemy.
Iran's Press TV reported that the weapon used in Friday's killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was made in Israel. “The weapons collected from the site of the terrorist act bear the logo and specifications of the Israeli military industry,” a source said.
In Jerusalem, there was no reply from Israeli officials contacted for comment on the report. Israeli intelligence minister Eli Cohen told a local radio station yesterday that he did not know who was responsible.
Fakhrizadeh, who had little public profile in Iran but had been named by Israel as a prime player in what it says is Iran's nuclear weapons quest, was killed when he was ambushed on a highway
near Tehran and his car sprayed with bullets. “We have some clues but surely the Monafeghin group was involved and the criminal element behind it is the Zionist regime (Israel) and Mossad,” said Shamkhani, referring to Israel's foreign intelligence service.
Monafeghin is a term officials employ to refer to the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an umbrella bloc of opposition groups in exile that seek an end to Shia Muslim clerical rule.
Iran began Fakhrizadeh's burial at a cemetery in northern Tehran yesterday, state TV reported, as the defence minister promised the Islamic Republic would retaliate for his killing. Iran's clerical and military rulers have blamed Israel for Fakhrizadeh's killing.
Iran's semi-official Fars news agency said on Sunday that Fakhrizadeh had been killed by a machine gun operated by remote control, while the Arabic lan
guage Al Alam TV reported the weapons used in the attack were “controlled by satellite”.
When asked about potential Iranian reprisals, Cohen said: “We have regional intelligence supremacy, and on this matter we are prepared, we are increasing vigilance in the places where that is required.”
Iran's hardline Kayhan daily, whose editor-in-chief is named by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in an opinion piece on Sunday called for an attack on the Israeli port city of Haifa, if an Israeli role in Fakhrizadeh's killing was proven. However, Iran's rulers are aware of daunting military and political difficulties in attacking Israel.
Such an attack would also complicate any effort by US president-elect Joe Biden to revive detente with Tehran after he takes office on January 20. Tehran has always denied seeking nuclear weapons.