Iran's Supreme Leader promises revenge for the killing of nuclear scientists

 Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has pledged to continue the work of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, whom Western and Israeli governments believe is the architect of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program.

Dubai: Iran's Supreme Leader pledged revenge on Saturday for the killing of the largest nuclear scientist in the Islamic Republic, raising the risk of a new confrontation with the West and Israel in the remaining weeks of Donald Trump's presidency.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has pledged to continue the work of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who Western and Israeli governments believe is the architect of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program.

Friday's killing, which the Iranian president blamed on Israel, could complicate any efforts by President-elect Joe Biden to revive the accord with Tehran that was forged while in the Obama administration.

Trump withdrew Washington from the 2015 international nuclear deal agreed between Tehran and the major powers.

Khamenei, the highest authority in Iran who says his country has never sought to possess nuclear weapons, said on Twitter that Iranian officials should assume the task of "following this crime and punishing the perpetrators and those who led it."

Fakhrizadeh, who did not have much public standing in Iran but was described by Israel as a major player in what it described as Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons, was killed on Friday when he was ambushed near Tehran and shot his car. He was taken to the hospital where he died.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised meeting on Saturday that Iran would respond "at the appropriate time."

"Once again, the evil hands of international arrogance and Zionist mercenaries were stained with the blood of a son of Iran," he said, using terms officials use to refer to Israel.

Israeli Government Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, who is close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said he did not know who carried out the assassination. "I have no evidence of who did this. It's not that my lips are closed because I'm responsible, I simply don't have any evidence," he told N12's Meet the Press.

The challenge to Biden

Israeli Army Radio said that some Israeli embassies were put on high alert after the Iranian threats to respond, although there were no reports of concrete threats. The military affairs correspondent on the radio said the army is routinely running.

Netanyahu's office declined to comment on the killing of Fakhrizadeh, and an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said the ministry had not commented on security in relation to foreign missions.

The White House, the Pentagon, the State Department and the CIA also declined to comment on the killing, as did the Biden transition team. Biden takes office on January 20.

"Whether Iran tends to retaliate or restrains itself, this will make it difficult for Biden to return to the nuclear deal," wrote Amos Yadlin, the former head of Israeli Military Intelligence and director of the Israel Institute for National Security Studies. Twitter.

Under the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. Once Trump withdrew in 2018, US sanctions were tightened, reducing Iran's vital oil exports and crippling the economy. Meanwhile, Tehran has accelerated its nuclear activities.

Germany, a party to the nuclear deal, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for restraint on all sides.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter that it is "shameful that some refuse to stand in the face of terrorism and hide behind calls for restraint."

Acceleration of nuclear action

"Iran will certainly respond. When and how it depends on our national interests. It might happen in the coming days or weeks but it will happen," a senior official told Reuters.

He referred to the Iranian retaliatory missile attacks in January on an Iraqi base where US forces are stationed, days after a US drone strike in Baghdad killed the prominent Iranian military commander, Qassem Soleimani. No American soldier was killed in the operation.

"The martyrdom of Fakhri Zadeh will accelerate our nuclear work," said Fereydoun Abbasi, the former head of Iran's Atomic Energy Authority, who survived an assassination attempt in 2010.

At least four scientists were killed between 2010 and 2012 in what Tehran described as an assassination program aimed at sabotaging its nuclear energy program. Iran has always denied it is seeking nuclear weapons, saying its goals are only peaceful.

Fakhrizadeh is believed to have presided over what the UN International Atomic Energy Agency and US intelligence agencies believe is a nuclear weapons program for Iran.

He was the only Iranian scientist named in the International Atomic Energy Agency's 2015 "final assessment" of open questions about Iran's nuclear program. It said he oversaw activities "to support a possible military dimension to the (Iran) nuclear program."

Fakhrizadeh was also a central figure in a presentation by the Israeli prime minister in 2018 accusing Iran of continuing to pursue nuclear weapons. Netanyahu said at the time: "Remember this name, Fakhrizadeh."

The US intelligence services and the International Atomic Energy Agency believe Iran halted the coordinated weapons program in 2003. The IAEA said it had no reliable indications of activities in Iran related to the development of a nuclear explosive device after 2009.

The United States deployed the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and its escort ships to the Gulf on Wednesday, shortly before the killing, but a US Navy spokeswoman said the deployment had nothing to do with any specific threats.