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A key scientist in Iran's nuclear program murdered with a car bomb

2020-11-29T00:32:52.661Z


Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was considered the "Iranian Oppenheimer" and the Israeli authorities had identified him as responsible for Iran's alleged plan to develop the atomic bomb.


By Ali Arouzi and Adela Suliman - NBC News

TEHRAN - A prominent Iranian nuclear scientist was killed on Friday near the country's capital, the Iranian Defense Ministry denounced.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was the ministry's head of innovation and research, died after the car he was traveling in was

attacked with a bomb and open fire

, according to reports from state news agencies.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, denounced on Twitter that there was a "clear Israeli involvement."

Zarif added: "Iran urges the international community, especially the European Union, to drop its double standards and condemn this act of state terror."

Israel and Iran have been in a diplomatic conflict for decades;

the Israelis accuse Tehran of wanting to eliminate them.

A spokesman for the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that they will not comment on what happened this Friday.

NBC News, sister network to Noticias Telemundo, has not been able to independently verify any of the details related to the scientist's death.

Fakhrizadeh was

nicknamed "the Iranian Robert Oppenheimer"

, in reference to the key American physicist in the development of the atomic bomb in 1945.

Western countries believed that Fakhrizadeh was leading an alleged covert program for Iran to develop nuclear weapons, which allegedly stopped in 2003. The Iranian government has repeatedly denied that its

nuclear energy initiatives are for war purposes.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a 2018 conference where he showed a photograph of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.Reuters /

Two years ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu even highlighted Fakhrizadeh's name during a presentation when the Israeli president presented material from an alleged Israeli nuclear archive.

"This is how Dr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the leader of the Amad Project ...

must remember that name, Fakhrizadeh

," Netanyahu said on that occasion, while accusing Iran of having breached the agreement to control its nucellar development that Tehran signed with European powers and the Obama Administration in 2015. The Donald Trump administration abandoned the pact in 2018.

This news is breaking news;

wait for updates.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2020-11-29

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