DUBAI: Iran will give a “calculated and decisive” response to the killingof its top nuclear scientist, said a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader,while a hard-line newspaper suggested Tehran’s revenge should includestriking the Israeli city of Haifa.
“Undoubtedly, Iran will give a calculated and decisive answer to thecriminals who took Martyr Mohsen Fakhrizadeh from the Iranian nation,”Kamal Kharrazi, who is also head of Iran’s Strategic Council on ForeignRelations, said in a statement.
Fakhrizadeh, long suspected by Western and Israeli government ofmasterminding a secret nuclear weapons program, was ambushed on a highwaynear Tehran on Friday and gunned down in his car.
Iran’s clerical and military rulers have blamed the Islamic Republic’slongtime enemy, Israel, for the killing. Iran has in the past accusedIsrael of killing several Iranian nuclear scientists since 2010.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has declined to comment on thekilling. An Israeli Cabinet minister, Tzachi Hanegbi, said on Saturday hedid not know who carried it out.
Iranian hard-line media called on Sunday for a tough revenge. The hard-lineKayhan daily, whose editor in chief is appointed by Supreme leaderAyatollah Ali Khamenei, called for an attack on the Israeli port city ofHaifa, if an Israeli role in Fakhrizadeh’s killing is proven.
“The attack should be carried out in such a way that in addition todestroying the facilities, it should also cause heavy human casualties,”wrote Saadollah Zarei in an opinion piece.
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However, Iran’s rulers are aware of daunting military and politicaldifficulties of attacking Israel. Such an attack would also complicate anyeffort by US President-elect Joe Biden to revive detente with Tehran afterhe takes office on Jan. 20.
Tensions have been high between Tehran and Washington since 2018, whenPresident Donald Trump exited Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with six majorpowers and reimposed sanctions that have hit Iran’s economy hard. Inretaliation, Tehran has gradually breached the deal’s curbs on its nuclearprogram.
Biden has said he will return the US to the deal if Iran resumescompliance. Iran has always denied pursuing nuclear weapons.
Courtesy: Arab News
