TEHRAN — President Hassan Rouhani has said Iran is entitled to take revenge for the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, an Iranian scientist who was killed during a terrorist attack on November 27.

“Iran’s government is entitled to take retaliation from the elements behind the assassination of the martyr,” Rouhani said on Thursday, according to Mehr.

He said the terrorist attack showed that Iran’s enemies are desperate in the face of Iranian scientists’ scientific progress.

“For us, it is completely clear who has committed this act of terror and what method was adopted to perpetrate this atrocity,” he said. 

Fakhrizadeh, a senior nuclear and defense scientist, was assassinated in a small city east of Tehran on November 27.

Three days later, he was laid to rest. His assassination could further hamper diplomatic efforts to salvage the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which was abandoned by U.S. President Donald Trump in May 2018.

Iran has blamed Israel, which has carried out assassination operations against Iranian nuclear scientists over the past decade. Immediately after the assassination, Foreign Minister Zarif said in a tweet that the attack was carried out with “serious indications of Israeli role”.

Over the past years Israel assassinated five other Iranian nuclear scientists. It killed Masoud Alimohammadi, Majid Shahriari, Darioush Rezaeinejad, and Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan. Israel also attempted to assassinate Fereydon Abbassi, Iran’s head of the Atomic Agency, but it failed.

Meanwhile, Iran’s ambassador and permanent representative to the Vienna-based international organizations has urged the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to clarify its position on the assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist.

“The IAEA is first expected to pronounce clearly its position in relation with the terrorist act and strongly condemn it in clear terms,” Kazem Gharibabadi tweeted on Monday night. 

“The Agency has a dire responsibility vis-a-vis a Member who is receiving the highest level of inspections of the Agency and having the most transparent nuclear program through implementing various commitments, but its scientists are assassinated or under threat of assassination, and its nuclear facilities are sabotaged or under threat of sabotage,” Gharibabadi added.

MH/PA