Iranian nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh Mahabadi
Photo by Trita Parsi
Reprinted with permission from Alternet
Amid swirling questions over what, if any, role the United States played in the assassination of top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, President Donald Trump on Friday amplified to his 88 million followers a Twitter post describing the killing as a "major psychological and professional blow" to Iran.
Sina Toossi, a senior research analyst at the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), characterized the U.S. president's move as an "implicit approval if there ever was one." The president also retweeted a New York Times report on the killing, which took place as Fakhrizadeh was traveling by car in northern Iran.
<p>As of this writing, Trump—who ordered the <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/02/explicit-act-war-us-kills-senior-iranian-military-official-qasem-soleimani-baghdad" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">killing</a> of top Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani earlier this year—has not otherwise responded to the assassination, which is drawing widespread condemnation from anti-war groups and Iranian officials.</p><p><br/></p><div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d9442387b07f98ff8889cc7a4508cbee" id="210e5"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1332354440930545664"><div style="margin:1em 0">12. There you have it. Trump retweets a tweet saying #Fakhrizadeh’s assassination is a “psychological & professiona… https://t.co/KRkOrhJoyf</div> — Sina Toossi (@Sina Toossi)<a href="https://twitter.com/SinaToossi/statuses/1332354440930545664">1606493027.0</a></blockquote></div>It remains unclear who was behind the Fakhrizadeh killing, but some—including Iran's top diplomat, Javad Zarif—have said they believe Israel, the top U.S. ally in the region, may be responsible, noting its <a href="https://twitter.com/tparsi/status/1332343041739403264" target="_blank">history</a> of carrying out such attacks.<p>"Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today," <a href="https://twitter.com/JZarif/status/1332345633425022976" target="_blank">said</a> Zarif. "This cowardice—with serious indications of Israeli role—shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators."</p><div class="inarticle_ad_placeholder" data-aa-adunit="/5931858/NatMemo_RM/NatMemo_Middle_Desktop_2" data-aaad="true"></div>
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<div id="vid"></div><p>Given that the move came in the wake of reports that Trump recently <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/16/us/politics/trump-iran-nuclear.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">requested options</a> for a military strike on Iran and news that Israel has been <a href="https://www.axios.com/israeli-military-prepares-trump-iran-0d0a5725-c410-4f5c-a0ea-9c6f9add4966.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">preparing</a> for such an attack for weeks, suspicions that the U.S. or Israel—or both—played a role in the killing are hardly fantastical.</p><p>As the <em>New York Times</em> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/world/middleeast/mohsen-fakhrizadeh-iran-scientist-killed.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reported</a>, "Mr. Fakhrizadeh had long been the No. 1 target of the Mossad, Israel's intelligence service, which is widely believed to be behind a series of assassinations of scientists a decade ago that included some of Mr. Fakhrizadeh's deputies."</p><p>Win Without War, an anti-war advocacy group, <a href="https://twitter.com/WinWithoutWar/status/1332351390425952259" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tweeted</a> Friday that "if the U.S. was involved with this assassination, it will be further evidence on top of the already heaping pile that Trump, Pompeo, and the other war hawks will do everything in their power to prevent the Biden admin from succeeding at diplomacy with Iran."</p><div class="inarticle_ad_placeholder" data-aa-adunit="/5931858/NatMemo_RM/NatMemo_Middle_Desktop_3" data-aaad="true"></div><p>Paul Kawika Martin, senior director of policy and political affairs at Peace Action, <a href="https://twitter.com/PaulKawika/status/1332353724040290305" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">added</a> that the international community "should condemn assassinations, especially those with apparent U.S. complicity to provoke war or block efforts by a new administration to revive the nuclear agreement that made the world safer."</p>
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