
Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said on Friday that there were “serious indications” that Israel was involved in the elimination of a top nuclear scientist and called on the international community to condemn the elimination.
“Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today. This cowardice—with serious indications of Israeli role—shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators,” tweeted Zarif.
“Iran calls on int'l community—and especially EU—to end their shameful double standards & condemn this act of state terror,” he added.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, known as "the father of the Iranian bomb", was killed in the Damavand area on the outskirts of Tehran, local media said.
The Fars news agency reported that between three and four others were killed in what it described as a “shootout.”
While official Iranian sources initially denied that Fakhrizadeh was eliminated, Iran’s armed forces subsequently admitted, “Unfortunately, the medical team did not succeed in reviving (Fakhrizadeh), and a few minutes ago, this manager and scientist achieved the high status of martyrdom after years of effort and struggle.”
The semi-official news agency Tasnim said “terrorists blew up another car” before firing on a vehicle carrying Fakhrizadeh and his bodyguards in an ambush outside the capital.
The military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed to strike against the killers of Fakhrizadeh.
“We will strike as thunder at the killers of this oppressed martyr and will make them regret their action,” tweeted Hossein Dehghan.
Iran has in the past claimed that Israel hires assassins to kill nuclear scientists throughout the Middle East.
Between 2010 and 2012, four nuclear scientists were assassinated inside Iran and a fifth survived a bomb attack. The government in Iran has blamed the attacks on US, British and Israeli intelligence services.
The US and Britain denied involvement, while Israel has not commented.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)