Published 20:13 IST, November 30th 2020
Iran's top official calls nuclear scientist's assassination 'complicated operation'
As Iran conducted the burial, held the funeral of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a top official said that the killing was a ‘complicated operation’.
As Iran conducted the burial, held the funeral of its slain nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh following his assassination last week, a top Iranian official on November 30 said that the killing was a ‘complicated operation’ that included “electronic devices”. While talking to state TV, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Rear-Admiral Ali Shamkhani echoed the similar remarks of holding Israel responsible for the murder of the scientist that led Iran’s disbanded military program.
According to him, the nuclear scientist was killed remotely on November 27. But during his remarks at the funeral of Fakhrizadeh, Shamkhanisaid that no individual was present at the site where the attack took place. Fakhrizadeh was killed on the outskirts of capital Tehran after gunmen attacked his car on Friday.
“Unfortunately, the operation was a very complicated operation and was carried out by using electronic devices,” Shamkhani told state TV. “No individual was present at the site.”
Israeli weapon was used to kill Fakhrizadeh
Earlier, Tehran’s English-language Press TV said on November 30 that the weapon used in the killing was made in Israel. An unnamed source revealed to Iranian state media that the weapon collected from the site where country’s top scientist was killed on November 27 “bears the logo and specifications of the Israeli military industry”.
However, in an interview before the report was published, Israeli intelligence minister Eli cohen had told a radio station that he did not know who was responsible for the murder that heightened the tensions in the region.
Fakhrizadeh was killed last week in an armed attack that according to an Associated Press report, bore the fears of military-style ambush, likes of which Israel has been accused of carrying out in the past. The Friday incident in Iran not only ignited tensions in the region but Tehran also placed the blame of the murder on Israel and Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei demanding “definitive punishment”.
Meanwhile, during the nuclear scientist’s funeral in northern Tehran on November 30, the nation’s defence minister separately pledged to continue the Fakhrizadeh’s work “with more speed and more power.” Even though he had little public profile, Fakhrizadeh was reportedly named by Israel as a prime player in Iran’s nuclear weapon’s quest. In the early 2000s, he had founded the Islamic republic’s military nuclear program.
Image: AP
Updated 20:11 IST, November 30th 2020