Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh killed ‘by remote control’

An Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated using remote-controlled automatic weapons fitted to a ute, reports from Tehran suggest.

Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in January last year. Picture: AFP

The “father of Iran’s nuclear arms program” was assassinated using remote-controlled automatic weapons fitted to a Nissan ute that was then destroyed in an ­explosion triggered by a self-­destruct mechanism, reports from Tehran suggest.

The Fars news agency, which has links to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, said that Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was shot dead outside his car, having stopped because he thought he had hit something or that there was a problem with the engine.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack on Friday, but Iran has said Israel was to blame.

Debate has raged in Iran on how and when to respond. Parliament demanded a halt to international inspections of Iranian nuclear sites while a top official hinted Iran should leave the global non-proliferation treaty.

President Hassan Rouhani has stressed the country will seek its revenge in “due time” and not be rushed into a “trap”.

Israel says Dr Fakhrizadeh was the head of an Iranian military nuclear program, the existence of which the Islamic republic has consistently denied, and Washington had sanctioned him in 2008 for activities linked to Iran’s atomic activities.

The scientist’s body was taken for a ceremony on Sunday at a major shrine in the holy city of Qom.

His funeral will be held in the presence of senior military commanders and his family, the defence ministry said without specifying where.

Israel has not officially commented on Dr Fakhrizadeh’s killing, less than two months before US president-elect Joe Biden is set to take office

Donald Trump withdrew the US from a multilateral nuclear agreement with Iran in 2018 and then reimposed and beefed up sanctions as part of its “maximum pressure” campaign against ­Tehran.

Mr Biden has signalled his ­administration may be prepared to rejoin the accord, but the nuclear scientist’s assassination has revived opposition to the deal among Iranian conservatives.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz ­reported that the killing was a message for Mr Biden.

“The timing of the assassination, even if it was determined by purely operational considerations, is a clear message to president-elect Joe Biden, intended to show Israel’s criticism” of plans to revive the deal, it said.

Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser when Mr Biden was vice-president to Barack Obama, said the killing was an “outrageous action aimed at ­undermining diplomacy between an incoming US administration and Iran”.

AFP, Agencies