IRAN’S top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was assassinated in an ambush in Tehran, was laid to rest amid calls for revenge for his killing. Iran will give a “calculated and decisive” response to the killing of its top nuclear scientist, said a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, while a hard-line newspaper suggested Tehran’s revenge should include striking the Israeli city of Haifa.
Fakhrizadeh, long suspected by the West and Israeli government of masterminding a secret nuclear weapons programme, was ambushed on a highway near Tehran on Friday and gunned down in his car. Iran’s religious and military rulers have blamed the Islamic Republic’s long-time enemy, Israel, for the killing. Iran has in the past accused Israel of killing several Iranian nuclear scientists since 2010. Though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has declined to comment on the killing but Iranians firmly believe that the conspiracy to eliminate the top nuclear scientist was hatched by the Jewish state, which feels threatened by the nuclear activities of Tehran. Irrespective of the nature of the Iranian nuclear programme, there was absolutely no justification to kill scientists and engineers and poison the environment further. Iran is unlikely to carry out open physical attacks against Jewish targets as it is pinning hopes on review of the US policy after assumption of power by Joe Biden, who has indicated revival of the deal that his country struck with Iran along with other major world powers but President Trump backed out unilaterally. However, the killing of Fakhrizadeh has legitimately enraged Iranians who might contemplate different options to retaliate and understandably this would heighten the tension further. Iran has all along been expressing its willingness to talk on all issues including its nuclear programme and therefore, there was no justification to make any attempt to neutralize its nuclear programme through coercive means.
