‘We will avenge murdered scientist’

Tehran – Iran was yesterday laying to rest one of its top nuclear scientists as the Islamic republic weighed how and when to retaliate for an assassination pinned on arch-foe Israel.

The killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh – whom Israel has dubbed the “father” of Iran’s nuclear weapons programme – has once more heightened tensions between Tehran and its foes, with President Hassan Rouhani accusing the Jewish state of acting as Washington’s “mercenary”.

Fakhrizadeh died on Friday after being seriously wounded when assailants targeted his car and engaged in a gunfight with his bodyguards outside Tehran, according to Iran’s defence ministry.

The funeral got underway with a large display showing a picture of the slain scientist next to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as former top general Qasem Soleimani, who was killed by the US in a drone strike in Baghdad this year.

Iran’s parliament on Sunday demanded a halt to international inspections of nuclear sites in the country, signalling another potential retreat from a key commitment in its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Rouhani said his country would seek its revenge for the assassination in “due time” and not be rushed into a “trap”, with less than two months to go before US President Donald Trump leaves office. US president-elect Joe Biden has promised a return to diplomacy with Iran, after Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018. –