Not Iranians alone, but anti-imperialists throughout the world are mourning the untimely death of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, struck down by Israeli-backed assassins at the end of November.
The prominent Iranian scientist was targeted in a sophisticated attack near Tehran involving at least one bomb and small-arms fire. His security team battled with the terrorists, killing three or four of them, but sadly was unable to save Mr Fakhrizadeh’s life.
This is but the latest cowardly murder of an Iranian scientist orchestrated by zionism in its futile bid to halt Iran’s scientific progress. With the same goal, Israel has made multiple cyberattacks on Iran’s peaceful nuclear programme.
Now it appears that Israel, taking advantage of the chaotic changing of the guard in the White House, is hoping by this provocation to bounce the middle east into another war. Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan, military advisor to Ayatollah Khamenei, remarked: “In the final days of their allied gambler’s political life, the zionists are after intensifying pressure on Iran in order to trigger an all-out war.”
This latest act of state terrorism by Israel has long been planned. As long ago as 2018, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in the course of making baseless claims about Tehran’s nuclear programme, singled out Mr Fakhrizadeh for special opprobrium, brazenly warning: “Remember that name, Fakhrizadeh.”
We can be sure it is a name that Iranians will always remember with pride, as a national hero who dedicated all his scientific and military expertise to the service of his country. He combined his research in nuclear physics with his role as a brigadier general in the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, helping in 1983 to found the IRGC’s special nuclear research unit, known as team-32.
He taught physics at Tehran’s Imam Hussein university and ran the technology department at the Malek Ashtar university. At the time of his murder, he was deputy defence minister and was running the Organisation of Defensive Innovation and Research.
It will come as no surprise to Iranians that Mr Fakhrizadeh’s most recent service to his countrymen was his work in developing both Iran’s first coronavirus testing kit and one of the country’s vaccine projects against the pandemic.
