Zimpapers Logo

Abbas Navazani Special Correspondent

On Friday November 27, 2020 at 2:30pm, an explosion rocked the small Absard city of Damavand County, about 40km northeast of the capital Tehran. A Nissan Junior pickup truck packed with highly explosive materials exploded as the convoy of Dr Mohsen Fakhrizadeh passed by.

The assailants, who are estimated to be more than 10 people, immediately unleashed a barrage of gunshots, assassinating the scientist and severely injuring his bodyguards. Doctors made efforts save Dr Fakhrizadeh, but their efforts to resuscitate him were in vain.

And ultimately, the Iranian Defence Ministry announced his martyrdom on Friday evening.

Dr Fakhrizadeh’s assassination, came almost 11 months after a US airstrike killed Iran’s top military commander General Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad on January 3, 2020.

In fact, Dr Fakhrizadeh is the fifth Iranian nuclear expert to be assassinated in the past decade.

A series of bombing and shooting attacks that Iran also blamed on Israel killed two experts in 2010, a third in 2011 and a fourth in 2012.

For years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has continued to experience terrorist acts yet the Western World especially the United States has continued to castigate the state for committing acts that are ironically committed against the people of Iran.

A quick reflection on the preamble of the United Charter, one of the most fundamental international covenants establishing state behavior reveals that members of the United Nations not only agreed to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained but also to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.

Accordingly, this can be attained through amongst other measures the practice of tolerance and living together in peace with one another as good neighbours including uniting our strength to maintain international peace and security.

However, how then can the set objectives of the United Nations be achieved when there is extraterritorial targeted killing, outside an armed conflict?

Once again, the evil hands of global arrogance and their Zionist mercenaries were stained with the blood of another Iranian, causing deep grief across the nation for losing a hard-working scientist.

In fact, two years ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu first divulged Dr Fakhrizadeh as the father of Iran’s nuclear project and mentioned the words “Remember that name”.

On Friday November 27 2020, his wishes were fulfilled as Dr Fakhrizadeh was assassinated. This constitutes a clear violation of international human rights law prohibiting the arbitrary deprivation of life and a violation of the United Nations Charter prohibiting the use of force extra-territorially in times of peace. This assassination of Dr Fakhrizadeh, a senior Iranian nuclear scientist, bears the clear hallmark of atrocities committed by the Israeli regime, which has in the past murdered a number of Iran’s scientific elites.

Dr Fakhrizadeh was Iran’s top nuclear scientist, who the American and Israeli intelligence had long charged for allegedly being behind secret programmes to design an atomic warhead.

However, as has been previously noted, the Iranian nuclear programme is strictly for peaceful purposes, and not for weapons. In fact, the cowardly act of terror against Iran is in clear violation of international rules, morals and humanitarian principles as Dr Fakhrizadeh played an “outstanding role” in developing a local Covid-19 test kit to help the country deal with the pandemic at a time when Iran is under inhumane sanctions of the United States which have been preventing Iranians to access humanitarian goods, including medicines and medical equipment.

Dr Fakhrizadeh was a distinguished physicist and a university lecturer, who carried out and contributed to various scientific initiatives including the chemical, biological and nuclear passive defence fields for protective purposes.

It is no secret that Israel and some other countries in the region are worried about the changing tide of politics in the Middle East and the consequences for them once President-elect Joe Biden takes office in the United States in January 2021. It is public knowledge that Mr Biden has pledged to return the US to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal — formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — an Obama-era pact that both President Donald Trump and Israel oppose.

Consequently, the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist is part of an effort by Israel with the blessing of the Trump administration a to derail a major foreign-policy goal of President-elect Joe Biden.

The world must know that the criminal act that was committed against the state of Iran – a terrorist attack — is aimed at new provocation against Tehran.

However, all think tanks and all enemies of Iran should know well that the Iranian nation and the country’s authorities are more courageous and Zealous than to let this criminal act go unanswered.

Additionally, Iran will not fall in the “trap” of the enemies which have the objective of occasioning chaos and sedition not only in the Middle East region but the world at large. The enemies of Iran should understand that we know their plans and they will not achieve their ominous goals.

Iran therefore calls for appropriate measures in line with international law to be taken so that justice is served and those responsible for the assassination of Dr Fakhrizadeh are brought to book.

Iran also wishes to inform the world that the effort for progress in all fields, especially in the scientific field, will continue in peace but with vigour and speed.

May your soul rest in eternal peace Dr Fakhrizadeh.

Abbas Navazani is the Iranian Ambassador to Zimbabwe.