February 26, 2021
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the Iranian nuclear scientist assassinated near Tehran in November, was killed by a one-ton gun smuggled into Iran in pieces by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, according to a report.
Meanwhile, the Intelligence Ministry says the main plotter in the murder was an Iranian, not an Israeli, who had been fired by the Defense Ministry and left Iran before the assassination. Some 2-1/2 months after the killing, the Intelligence Ministry announced it was hunting for the Iranian, whom it did not name.
The Intelligence Ministry also said “a number” of other people have been identified as having roles in the killing. It did not name any of them, nor say whether they were all Iranians.
Intelligence Minister Mahmud Alavi complained that his ministry’s investigation was hampered because both the victim and the accused planner were part of he military. “We can’t conduct intelligence work in the area of the armed forces,” he said.
The Joint Staff of the armed forces responded that the man in question had only been in military training for a few months in 2014 before he was expelled for ethical failings and addiction. It said that since he had not been associated with the military for six years, there was no restriction on the Intelligence Ministry investigating him.
The London-based Jewish Chronicle said a team of more than 20 agents, including both Israeli and Iranian nationals, carried out the ambush after spending eight months surveilling Fakhrizadeh.
Immediately after his death, Iran pointed the finger at Israel. It said nothing about any involvement by Iranian nationals until 2-1/2 months after the killing.
Fakhrizadeh, 59, was long suspected by the West of masterminding a secret nuclear bomb program.
He had been described by Western and Israeli intelligence services for years as the mysterious leader of a covert atomic bomb program halted in 2003.
According to the Jewish Chronicle’s report, Iran has “secretly assessed that it will take six years” before a replacement for him is “fully operational” and that his death had “extended the period of time it would take Iran to achieve a bomb from about three-and-a-half months to two years.”
Giving no further details of its sourcing, the world’s oldest Jewish newspaper said the Mossad mounted the automated gun on a Nissan pickup and that “the bespoke weapon, operated remotely by agents on the ground as they observed the target, was so heavy because it included a bomb that destroyed the evidence after the killing.”
It said the attack was carried out “by Israel alone, without American involvement” but that U.S. officials were given some form of notice beforehand.