On November 27th, the treacherous murder that was committed in the suburbs of Tehran on a Friday, a holy day for all Muslims, of the leading Iranian nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh elicited strong reaction not only from the Iranian public, but from Israel, the United States, and the entire world. [...] Fakhrizadeh was the fifth nuclear physicist killed in Iran over the past 10 years, and along with that the telltale signs of Israeli involvement could be observed with all the assassination attempts. The murder of Fakhrizadeh was the most high-profile one, since he was the highest-ranking official in his industry. In the past, Israel has used specially trained opponents of the Islamic regime to do its dirty work in Iran against Iranian nuclear facilities, and nuclear physicists. However, given the professionalism and complexity involved in the attack on Fakhrizade, it can be assumed that it was carried out by the Israelis themselves. [...] However, some emphasize that Iranian leaders have proven that they can be patient, and prudent, in their responses, and that may largely depend on the extent to which the international community, and especially Iran’s partners in the nuclear deal, denounce those who initiated the killing. Therefore, if Iran sticks by its initial hot-headed reaction to exact revenge for this murder, and Israel by its relentless intention to destroy its enemies as per the Begin doctrine, then we can expect the situation in the region to worsen, even right up to military conflict. And in this case, calls for the parties to exercise restraint – which have already been sounded by the UN, Russia, China and a number of other countries – are quite fitting to help prevent a situation from developing dangerously any further that will not bring security to Israel, the United States, the region, or the world as a whole.
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2020-12-01
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2020-12-01
The prevailing assumption in the Israeli and international media, and among governments around the world, is that the assassination of the head of Iran’s military nuclear project, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was carried out by Israel. If so, the costs and benefits of the assassination from Israel’s vantage point should be examined and weighed. To this end, certain questions must be answered: What was the strategic purpose of this action, and what is the likelihood of its ultimate success? In light of this goal, was the timing of the action correct? And finally, are the potential costs greater or smaller than the expected benefit? This article concludes that in the case of the killing of Fakhrizadeh, it is doubtful that the benefits outweigh the costs, and unclear that the assassination will substantially serve the goal of damaging and delaying the Iranian nuclear program.
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2020-12-01
In the weeks remaining before Joe Biden’s inauguration, Donald Trump is taking actions — including aiding and abetting murder — to prevent his successor from pursuing diplomacy with Iran.
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2020-11-30
On November 27, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a prominent nuclear scientist, was assassinated in a roadside attack about 40 miles east of Tehran. Western and Israeli intelligence had long suspected that Fakhrizadeh was the father of Iran’s covert nuclear weapons program. He was often compared to J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the American atomic bomb. He kept a low profile for most of his career. His name was not widely known even in Iran until he was sanctioned by the United Nations in 2007 and the United States in 2008.
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2020-11-30
Iran vowed retaliation for the killing of a prominent nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was shot to death near Tehran on November 27. Senior national security officials blamed Israel and Iranian opposition groups for orchestrating the alleged assassination. They labelled the killing as state-sponsored terrorism and demanded that the international community condemn the perpetrators.
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2020-11-29
With the assassination presumably by Israel of Iran’s top nuclear warhead designer, the Middle East is promising to complicate Joe Biden’s job from Day 1. President-elect Biden knows the region well, but if I had one piece of advice for him, it would be this: This is not the Middle East you left four years ago. With the assassination presumably by Israel of Iran’s top nuclear warhead designer, the Middle East is promising to complicate Joe Biden’s job from Day 1. President-elect Biden knows the region well, but if I had one piece of advice for him, it would be this: This is not the Middle East you left four years ago. They were right. The Middle East was reshaped by this Iranian precision missile strike, by President Trump’s response and by the response of Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to Trump’s response.
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2020-11-28
The killing of Iran’s top nuclear scientist is likely to impede the country’s military ambitions. Its real purpose may have been to prevent the president-elect from resuming diplomacy with Tehran.
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2020-11-15
The story is laughable. If any important al-Qaeda guy had been killed last August Trump would have screamed about it during his campaign from the top of his lungs. […] Twelve years ago we already joked about all the fake "Al-Qaeda No.2 killed" stories which appeared in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. [...] Being Al-Qaeda's number 2 is a dangerous job! As No.2 one might be media-killed anytime the U.S. seeks a pretext to ramp up sanctions on Iran.
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2020-11-15
In a statement released on Saturday, the Hamzeh Seyed al-Shohada Base said the IRGC’s ground forces had targeted the positions of counter-revolutionary outfits and inflicted heavy damage and casualties on them. [...] In recent years, Iranian border guards have on many occasions engaged terrorists who attempted to cross the frontier and carry out attacks. Such confrontations are not rare in West Azarbaijan Province, which borders Iraq and Turkey. The area has seen occasional fighting between Iranian forces and PJAK terrorists as well as militants linked to the Daesh group. In July, Iran said terrorists had killed two people and wounded a third person in an attack in Iran’s province of Kurdistan, to the south of West Azarbaijan. In June, Iran attacked bases of PJAK terrorists in northern Iraq.“
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2020-11-15
Defense Minister of Iraq Lt. General Juma Anad Saadoun, who is heading a high-ranking delegation of Iraqi military commander in a visit to Tehran, met with Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri on Sunday morning. The main purpose of the meeting was to expand defense and military cooperation between Iran and Iraq.