TEHRAN — Spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) has said the elements behind the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and the act of sabotage at the Natanz nuclear facility are the same.

“Their footprint is clearly seen in different incidents,” Behrooz Kamalvandi said on Saturday, Tasnim reported.

Fakhrizadeh, who headed the research and innovation wing at Iran's Defense Ministry, was assassinated on Friday on the outskirts of the capital Tehran.

It was the second high-profile assassination since January, when Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani was killed by a U.S. airstrike. The assassination of Fakhrizadeh has drawn outrage and anger in Tehran.

“In the Natanz incident, it can be said that their elements are the same as the recent incident, and it seems that the Zionist regime is involved in these cases,” Kamalvandi said.

Kamalvandi said the enemy has targeted Iran’s strength to hamper its progress.

“In the industrial sector, we must double our work, and in the security sectors, we must give a decisive response to these measures,” he remarked.

Natanz is a uranium enrichment center located in the city of the same name in central Isfahan Province. On July 2, Iran announced an incident affected a shed under construction at the Natanz complex, but it caused no casualties and failed to stop the enrichment work at the facility. 

Kamalvandi said on September 6 that the elements and reasons behind the blast have been identified, but he did provide further details.

“The elements and reasons behind the act of sabotage at the Natanz facility have been identified, but it’s not possible to give out further information since the issue is under investigation,” he said.

In the aftermath of the Friday assassination, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Iranian experts to preserve the scientific and technical legacy of the nuclear physicist, and ordered punishment of Fakhrizadeh’s assassins.

President Hassan Rouhani also warned of a conspiracy hatched by the Zionist regime to incite chaos in the region, vowing that the Islamic Republic would respond to the assassination at the proper time.

MH/PA