Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday accused
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| Image source:-google| Image by:- livemint |
Israel of assassinating one of Tehran's
prominent nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on Friday.
Iran has written a letter to the United Nations (UN) asserting
that it reserves the 'right to defend' itself, blaming Israel's
hand in the assassination.
'Once again, the wicked hands of the global arrogance, with the
usurper Zionist regime as the mercenary, were stained with the
blood of a son of this nation,' Rouhani said in a statement on
his official website.
Iran generally uses the term 'global arrogance' to refer to the
United States. The assassination threatens to escalate tensions
between Iran and the US and its close ally Israel, with some
warning of the risk of a major conflict in the Middle East.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh 59, was seriously wounded in an attack while
travelling near Absard city in Tehran province's eastern Damavand
county.
Assailants targeted his car before engaging in a gunfight with his
bodyguards in an attack outside Tehran on Friday, Iran's defence
ministry said.
It added that Fakhrizadeh, who headed the ministry's reasearch and
innovation organisation, was later 'martyred' after medics failed to
revive him.
Images from the scene showed a black sedan on the side of the road,
its windshield pockmarked with bullet holes. A pool of blood was seen
on the asphalt.
Rouhani vowed that his death 'does not disrupt' Iran's scientific
progress and said the killing was due to the 'weakness and inability'
of Tehran's enemies to impede its growth.
He offered condolences to the scientific community and the revolutionary
people of Iran.
Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Friday said that
there were 'serious indications of an Israeli role' in the assassination.
Iran's Defence Minister Amir Hatami said Fakhrizadeh had a
'significant role in defence innovations' and had been repeatedly
'threatened with assassination and (was) followed.'
The United States slapped sanctions on Fakhrizadeh in 2008 for
'activities and transactions that contributed to the development
of Iran's nuclear programme'.
A US official confirmed earlier this month that Trump had asked
military aides for a plan for a possible strike on Iran. Trump
decided against it at that time because of the risk it could provoke
an uncontrollable wider Middle East conflict.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once described him as the
father of Iran's nuclear weapons programme.
