Top Iranian official vows “firm” response to assassination of scientist

Issuing a message on Sunday, Kamal Kharrazi, who is also a former Iranian foreign minister, condemned the assassination, noting that the Iranian scientist lost no opportunity to achieve his scientific objectives with the final goal of ensuring the security of his country.

“There is no doubt that the Islamic Republic of Iran will give a calculated and categorical response to those criminals who took Fakhrizadeh from the Iranian nation,” Kharrazi said, after expressing condolences to Fakhrizadeh's family, his colleagues and the entire Iranian nation.

Fakhrizadeh, the head of the Iranian Defense Ministry’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, was targeted in a multi-pronged terrorist attack by a number of assailants in Absard city of Tehran Province’s Damavand County on Friday.

Following his assassination, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei called on Iranian experts to preserve the scientific and technical legacy of the nuclear scientist.

“One of our country’s eminent scientists in the nuclear and defense fields - Dr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh -has been martyred by brutal mercenaries. With his great, enduring scientific efforts, he sacrificed his life on the path of God and the lofty status of martyrdom is his divine reward,” the Leader said in a message released on Saturday.

The chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) also warned that “a severe revenge and punishment” has been put on Iran’s agenda in response to the assassination of a high-profile nuclear scientist.

“The blind-hearted enemies of the Iranian nation, especially those who designed, perpetrated and supported this crime, should know that such crimes will not undermine the Iranians’ will and determination to continue this glorious and powerful path, and that a severe revenge and punishment is put on the agenda,” Major General Hossein Salami added.

Earlier on Sunday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the recent assassination of a senior Iranian nuclear scientist bears the clear hallmark of atrocities committed by the Israeli regime, which has already murdered a number of Iran's scientific elites.

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, the country’s nuclear agency, has likewise suspected Israeli involvement in both the assassination and a July incident at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility. “It looks like the Zionist regime [of Israel] has a role in these issues,” AEOI Spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said on Saturday.

On Friday, the New York Times reported that an American official and two other intelligence officials confirmed Israel was behind the targeted killing.

“One American official — along with two other intelligence officials — said that Israel was behind the attack on the scientist,” The New York Times said, adding, “It was unclear how much the United States may have known about the operation in advance, but the two nations are the closest of allies and have long shared intelligence regarding Iran.”