Iran Nuclear Expert Escapes Attempted Assassination, Fakhrizadeh Wounded

TEHERAN – Nuclear specialist Iran Mohsen Fakhrizadeh escaped an assassination attempt near Tehran on Friday. He is currently being treated in hospital with injuries.

Fakhrizadeh has long been suspected by enemies of Iran, the West and Israel of masterminding a secret atomic bomb program that was discontinued in 2003. Iran has long denied accusations of wanting a nuclear arsenal.

News agency Fars, which is affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, named the nuclear scientist injured in the attack as Fakhrizadeh.

Shortly before, several Iranian media including the IRIB said a nuclear and missile scientist had been killed in one strike. But there is no official confirmation of his death. (Also Read: First in Europe, Iranian Diplomats Tried for Bombing Plans)

Tehran’s nuclear energy agency said there were no incidents involving nuclear scientists. (See Infographic: Records! Increasing 5,828, Total 522,581 Positive Covid-19 People)

“News sources said a scientist had been the victim of an assassination attempt in an armed attack by an unidentified person in his team of bodyguards,” Iranian state television reported in its coverage of the incident. (Watch Video: Residents Find Babies Abandoned in Oil Palm Farms in Pandeglang, Banten)

Fakhrizadeh is thought to have led what the United Nations nuclear watchdog and US intelligence services believed to be a coordinated nuclear weapons program in Iran in 2003.

He is the only Iranian scientist named in the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) 2015 “final assessment” on questions about Iran’s nuclear program and whether it is aimed at developing a nuclear bomb.

The IAEA report said, “He is overseeing activities in support of a possible military dimension to (Iran’s) nuclear program which is called the AMAD Plan.”

Israel has also described the AMAD Plan as Iran’s secret nuclear weapons program. Israel admits it seized most of Iran’s detailed nuclear “archives”.

“Remember that name, Fakhrizadeh,” Israeli Prime Minister (PM) Benjamin Netanyahu said in a 2018 speech that revealed details of the archive. Netanyahu named Fakhrizadeh as head of AMAD.

Netanyahu said after AMAD was closed, Fakhrizadeh continued to work for an organization inside the Iranian Ministry of Defense on “special projects”.

(sya)

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