Iran’s supreme leader vowed the nation will have its revenge on those responsible for the killing of a prominent nuclear scientist.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement that Iran would seek the “definitive punishment of the perpetrators and those who ordered it” after Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed on Friday in what appears to have been a coordinated attack. Iran’s Defense Ministry claimed he was ambushed in his car outside of the nation’s capital.
The scientist has been widely regarded as the architect of the country’s secret military nuclear program, which was halted in 2003. Since then, Iran has repeatedly claimed that its efforts in nuclear development have nothing to do with developing a bomb and are instead focused on energy.
“We will respond to the assassination of Martyr Fakhrizadeh in a proper time,” said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, blaming Israel for Fakhrizadeh’s death. “The Iranian nation is smarter than falling into the trap of the Zionists. They are thinking to create chaos.”
A spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry told NBC News that it was “not commenting on security-related matters.”
Experts believe the nation has enough low-enriched uranium to create two nuclear weapons if it chose to pursue such a project, according to the Associated Press.
The weekend’s developments might have an impact on whether President-elect Joe Biden is able to reestablish a nuclear agreement with the nation when he takes office. President Trump withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, better known as the Iran nuclear deal, in 2018. The deal promised economic sanctions relief in exchange for a limitation on the nation’s enrichment of uranium.
