Mohammed Khaku
The killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the top nuclear scientist comes at a delicate time and so close to Biden taking office on Jan 20th, 2021. Many report indicate that this assassination plan where coordinated efforts by Trump, Netanyahu and Mohammed bin Salman to increase tension with Iran to derail Biden to return to the 2015 JCOPA -Iran nuclear deal. Trump’s decision to have US unilaterally depart from 2015 JCPOA, assassination of Qassim Soleimani, commander of Al Quds brigade, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, and applying maximum pressure on Iran financial system is an act of war. I do not imagine what would US do if Russia or China were to apply this strategy. This policy has proved to be a failure, as it has neither triggered a regime change, nor financial collapse, on the contrary it has united the Islamic republic under the supreme leader (Rahbar) Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iran has become a power house in the Middle East. Before thanksgiving reports indicated that top Israeli, Saudi, U.S officials and Mossad chief Yossi Cohen met in Saudi Arabia to discuss the plan to assassinate Mohsen Fakhrizadeh the father of Iran’s nuclear program. Surely, Mossad is indeed behind the assassination with the green light from Trump, seeking to be a spoiler. He had asked his Generals for military options to attack Iran, in the aftermath of his election defeat. Iran had no option but to change its calculus by forming alliance with China-Russia and obtain an insurance policy of no longer abiding by the limits on its nuclear program. Iran is now closer to a nuclear bomb than anytime. The show of strength of the new alliance came last month when Iran celebrated its new war ship and continued the joint naval operations with the Russians and Chinese. This illegal assassination and maximum pressure on Iran are ill-advised and only consolidated the Russian and Chinese influence with Islamic Republic of Iran. Moreover, assassination is unlikely to have profound impact on Iran to develop its nuclear weapons. Who was Mohsen Fakhrizadeh? Fakhrizadeh, 59 was born in Qum, a physicist and a professor at the Imam Hussein University in Tehran. Fakhrizadeh was the brain child behind the Islamic Republic nuclear program. No wonder he was the target for assassination by Zionist Mossad. The three musketeers, Trump, Netanyahu and Saudi Bedouin Mohammed bin Salman are escalating tension and desperate to start a war with Iran. Trumps’ threat to attack fifty-two archeological sites in Iran and losing the election is the key motivational factor for Trump to start the full-blown war creating a destructive situation that will undermine Biden-Harris team diplomacy or re-join the JCPOA. The assassination was the last resort by Zionist and Trump administration to entice Iran into retaliation and thwart any future diplomacy with Biden administration. Iran the finger at Mossad, while implying the killing had the blessing of the loser Trump. Foreign Minister Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter of “serious indications of (an) Israeli role”. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has already called for the international community to condemn the act as “state terror” while former CIA director John Brennan called the act “criminal” and “highly reckless and flagrant violation of international law.” U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate’s Middle East subcommittee, said on Twitter “this assassination does not make America, Israel or the world safer.” While Iran’s U.N. envoy, Majid Takht Ravanchi, said in a letter to Guterres that Tehran “reserves its rights to take all necessary measures” to defend itself. He also called on the U.N. Security Council to condemn the killing and take steps “against its perpetrators.” Islamic Republic of Iran a civilization of more than 300 years has many options to defend and retaliate. It will do so calmly, responsively, in its own time and not to create civilian casualties, which it has done in past. Islamic Republic of Iran has survived over 42 years of sanctions, assassinations, imposed war and arms embargo. Surely, God willing (inshallah) will be victorious. Long Live Iran! Iran Zindabad!
(-The writer is a freelance columnist, based in USA.)
