Top Iranian Nuclear Scientist Reportedly Hospitalized Following Assassination Attempt Near Tehran

 Published on  Friday, November 27, 2020

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Common Dreams

"Iranian officials are almost certainly going to say this has U.S. and Israeli hallmarks all over it," said NBC News Tehran correspondent Ali Arouzi.

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Jake Johnson, staff writer 

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The site where a top Iranian nuclear scientist was reportedly assassinated on November 27, 2020. (Photo: Ali Arouzi/Twitter)

Update:

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a leading Iranian nuclear scientist, was reportedly hospitalized on Friday following what was described by state media as an assassination attempt.

The news came after reports by some Iranian media outlets said Fakhrizadeh was killed.

"Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the Iranian nuclear scientist who was targeted in an assassination attempt, is reportedly still alive and receiving medical treatment," tweeted Sina Toossi, a senior research analyst with the National Iranian American Council. "Earlier reports said he had died. His situation is likely very dire."

Earlier:

A top Iranian nuclear scientist was reportedly assassinated near the nation's capital of Tehran on Friday morning.

First reported by state media outlets but not yet confirmed by Iranian officials, news of the alleged killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh comes amid simmering fears of a military attack on Iran by the U.S. or Israel. American and Israeli officials have for years claimed, without evidence, that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon.

Earlier this month, according to the New York Times, U.S. President Donald Trump asked his advisers to provide him with options to bomb Iran's primary nuclear site. And earlier this week, Axios reported that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) "have in recent weeks been instructed to prepare for the possibility that the U.S. will conduct a military strike against Iran before President Trump leaves office" in January.

Fakhrizadeh is "by far the most important Iranian nuclear scientist to be assassinated to date," noted Ali Arouzi, Tehran correspondent for NBC News. "Netanyahu had mentioned him by name."

Around the time reports of the assassination began circulating, Hossein Salami, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), tweeted: "The assassination of nuclear scientists is the most obvious violent confrontation of the imperialist system to prevent us from gaining access to modern science."

As Middle East Eye reported, "There has been no official confirmation of the nuclear scientist's death, and Iran's nuclear agency denied there had been any incident involving one of its scientists."

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