The American newspaper The Washington Post said that questions about the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh quickly shifted from the one responsible for this "brazen" attack, which took place in broad daylight, to the real target behind the assassination.

In a report by its Israeli correspondents, Steve Hendrix and Shera Rubin, the newspaper stated that Israeli commentators quickly ignored the official refusal to comment on the incident, despite the fact that it carried "the fingerprints of a secret Israeli operation", to ask one question, which is what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu aspires to achieve from behind?

The newspaper talked about a set of scenarios being circulated among Israeli analysts and commentators, the first of which is whether Netanyahu is seeking, through this assassination, to drag the Iranian side into a military response that in turn will justify a devastating American attack on Tehran's nuclear program in the last weeks of the outgoing President Donald's term. Trump.

The second scenario - the newspaper adds - may be represented in the Israeli prime minister's desire to undermine all the conditions for the diplomatic reform that President-elect Joe Biden is expected to seek in his relationship with Iran.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was at the top of the Israeli assassination target list, according to the newspaper (Anatolia)

Mastermind

As for the third scenario, discussed by Israeli analysts, it relates to the assumption that Netanyahu used only an available opportunity to liquidate Fakhrizadeh, the "mastermind" of Iran's nuclear program, which tops the list of Israeli assassination targets, in the hope that Tehran will show restraint in its response as it has done since the attack.

The Washington Post reported that the level of complexity in the assassination, as it was sometimes attributed to either a squad of professional assassins or a car bomb or a superweapon controlled by satellite, appears to have taken months of planning and preparation, and when the opportunity arose, Netanyahu might have given his consent to press the trigger, ignoring the tensions in Region.

While hard-liners in Iran are pressing the country's leadership for a strong response to what they see as the "humiliation" they have suffered on their soil as a result of this operation, Meir Javidanver, an Iranian-born lecturer specializing in Persian affairs at the Interdisciplinary Herzliya Center, believes that the Iranian regime is headed by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei - who are facing stifling economic sanctions and a large number of deaths due to the Corona crisis and mounting domestic unrest - will act with caution.

"Khamenei can play the role of a strong man with the Iranian people, but with the international community he has to be more careful," he added.

Right of reply

On the other hand, the American newspaper believes that Tehran's failure to act since last Friday - the date of the assassination - indicates that the Iranians may reserve the right to respond until they see what the new White House, led by Joe Biden, will carry.

She adds that whatever the motives behind the assassination, the attack presented the State Department in the next US administration with a "turbulent" diplomatic environment and a message that the emerging alliance between Israel and its Gulf neighbors (officially the UAE and Bahrain, with indications of an expected Saudi-Israeli normalization on the horizon) would confront both Iran. Biden as a unified regional bloc.

The main message, therefore, to Tehran - the newspaper concludes - is that there is a "wall of enemies ready to confront you", and for the administration of the next President of the United States that America's allies in the region stand side by side and unanimously agree that Iran is the main threat to them and they want their views to be heard and at the center of the priorities in Washington.