Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the authorities of the Islamic Republic will punish those responsible for the murder of nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who served as head of the research and innovation organization under the Iranian Defense Ministry.

He announced this on his Twitter page. 

“First, it is necessary to investigate this crime and severely punish the perpetrators and customers.

Secondly, it is necessary to continue the scientific and technical development of the martyr (Fakhrizadeh. -

RT

) in all areas in which he worked, "Khamenei wrote.

According to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the assassination of Fakhrizade was allegedly organized by the Israeli special services.

Rouhani's statement is broadcast by Reuters with reference to the state television of the Islamic Republic.

Earlier, the commander of the Iranian army, Abdulrahim Mousavi, said that the United States and Israel were behind the death of the nuclear physicist.

The authorities of the United States and Israel have not yet commented on Tehran's accusations.

On November 27, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh's car was reportedly attacked by unknown assailants in the area of ​​the city of Absard (east of Tehran).

The scientist was seriously injured and died in the hospital.

The Iranian authorities declared the deceased physicist a "martyr" and qualified his murder as a terrorist act.

The West and Israel believe that Fakhrizadeh played an important role in the development of Iran's nuclear missile program.

According to Reuters, before the conclusion of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015, the scientist could be involved in a research project allegedly aimed at developing a nuclear warhead.

The Iranian authorities have repeatedly denied that they are implementing such plans.

  • Iranian nuclear power plant

  • Reuters

  • © Mehr News Agency / Majid Asgaripour

During a press conference in April 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the country's intelligence allegedly received an archive of documentation on the Iranian nuclear program.

According to him, Fakhrizadeh was the head of the secret atomic projects of the Ministry of Defense of the Islamic Republic.

Iran, in turn, said that the documents provided by Israeli intelligence are fake.

In Iranian government sources on the activities of the deceased scientist, you can find extremely scant information.

So, in a letter from the Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic to the UN, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, it is reported that Fakhrizade, among other things, was involved in the development of tests for detecting coronavirus.

According to the Arabic-speaking Iranian TV channel Al Alam, in March 2007, Fahrizadeh fell under the sanctions of the UN Security Council against Iran, which refused to stop enriching uranium.

Then the black list included 28 individuals and organizations suspected by the international community in the implementation of the nuclear program.

In 2018, in an interview with the Kan TV channel, the former head of the government of the Jewish state, Ehud Olmert, said that the MOSSAD was tracking Fakhrizade's activities.

Olmert also hinted that Israel, as before, is ready to carry out an operation to eliminate the physicist.

According to sources in the intelligence agencies of The New York Times, it was Israel who allegedly planned the assassination of Fakhrizade.

At the same time, the interlocutors of the newspaper do not know whether Washington was warned about this operation in advance.

The White House and the CIA refused to comment on the situation with the death of the Iranian scientist to reporters.

Israeli intelligence agencies, as noted by American journalists, may also be behind a series of assassinations of Iranian physicists in 2010 and 2012.

Then the victims of the killers were scientists, some of whom worked together with Fakhrizade.

So, in January and November 2010, professor of the capital's University named after Imam Hussein Masud Ali Mohammadi and professor of Beheshti University Majid Shahriyari were killed.

In January 2012, an employee of the Natanz nuclear center Mostafa Ahmadi Roushan became a victim of an explosion in eastern Tehran - two unidentified men on a motorcycle threw a bomb into the interior of his car.

  • Soldier of the Israeli army

  • Reuters

  • © Mohamad Torokman

According to Sergey Druzhilovsky, professor of the Department of Oriental Studies at MGIMO, Israel could easily recruit Iranian killers to eliminate Fakhrizade.

“It is impossible to say exactly how and what, but outside and inside Iran there are enough Persians who oppose the regime that won in 1979.

There is, for example, a group of Behais (a religious movement that actively opposed itself to orthodox Shiism. -

RT

) who were expelled from Iran and now live in Israel.

Hypothetically, they can be completely lost in Iran, "Druzhilovsky suggested in an interview with RT.

"Desperate incitement to war"

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif called the killing of Fakhrizadeh "cowardice" and "desperate incitement to war."

According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic, there are "serious signs of Israel's role in the death of the scientist."

“Terrorists have killed a prominent Iranian scientist today ... Iran is calling on the international community - and especially the EU - to end their shameful double standards and condemn this act of state terror,” Zarif wrote on his Twitter page.

In a letter to the UN Secretary General and the Chairman of the Security Council, Majid Takht-Ravanchi said that after the assassination of the scientist, Tehran reserves the right to retaliate.

“While warning against any adventurous measures by the United States and Israel against my country, especially during the remainder of the current US administration, the Islamic Republic of Iran reserves the right to take all necessary measures to protect its people and its interests,” the statement says. letter to Takht-Ravanchi.

A similar warning was issued by the adviser to the supreme leader of Iran, Hossein Dehgan.

In turn, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for restraint and the need to avoid any action that could lead to an escalation of tensions.

Meanwhile, American analysts do not exclude that Tehran may respond by force to the murder of Fakhrizade.

In particular, this point of view was expressed by a former senior Pentagon official Michael Mulroy in a commentary to the New York Times.

The journalists themselves believe that the incident could complicate the work of the Joe Biden administration on the promised restoration of US participation in the JCPOA.

Tel Aviv-based Axios columnist Barak Ravid suggested that the elimination of Fakhrizade was reminiscent of the Donald Trump administration and the Netanyahu government trying to increase pressure on Iran before Biden's inauguration.

Experts interviewed by RT believe that in the field of nuclear physics, Fakhrizadeh was as prominent a figure in Iran as IRGC General Qassem Suleimani was in the military sphere. 

  • Funeral procession in Tehran after the death of Qasem Suleimani

  • Reuters

  • © WANA

Recall, Suleimani was killed on the night of January 3 in Baghdad as a result of an American UAV strike.

The elimination of the military leader provoked large-scale anti-American actions in Iran.

Tehran declared the deceased a "martyr" and launched a series of missile attacks on US bases in Iraq. 

“This is an understandable tactic.

The United States and Israel do not go to war with Iran for fear of large losses.

Instead, they are probably trying to weaken it by eliminating key figures.

For example, the assassination of Soleimani led to a decrease in Iran's military activity abroad.

In the case of Fakhrizade, it will probably be the same with Iran's nuclear projects, ”says Semyon Bagdasarov, director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Central Asia, military expert.

Sergey Druzhilovsky takes a different view of the situation.

The expert believes that the liquidation of Fakhrizadeh will not have a negative impact on the implementation of the atomic projects of the Islamic republic.

“Iran has a very good scientific school.

Fakhrizade's death will not affect the development of the nuclear program, which is peaceful and aimed at developing the economy.

There are enough scientists in Iran who are able to continue the work of Fakhrizade, ”concluded Druzhilovsky.