Iranian scientist widely seen by Western intelligence as mastermind behind Iran’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, right, sits alongside two unidentified men in a meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Iran, January 23, 2019
[File: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP]
27 Nov 2020
Prominent Iranian military scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, killed in an attack outside Tehran on Friday, was widely seen by Western intelligence as the mastermind of clandestine Iranian efforts to develop nuclear weapons.
Iran denies Fakhrizadeh was involved in any such undertaking and that it ever tried to weaponise uranium enrichment for nuclear energy.
But he is widely thought to have headed what the United Nations atomic watchdog and United States intelligence services believe was a coordinated nuclear arms programme that was halted in 2003.
What is known about him?
Western officials and experts believe Fakhrizadeh played a pivotal role in past Iranian work to devise the means to assemble a nuclear warhead behind the facade of a declared civilian uranium enrichment programme.
Iran denies ever having sought to develop a nuclear weapon.
He lived in the shadows under high security and was never made available to UN nuclear investigators.
Fakhrizadeh rarely – if ever – surfaced in public and few outside Iran know with any certainty what he looked like, let alone had met him.
He has the rare distinction of being the only Iranian scientist named in the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 2015 “final assessment” of open questions about Iran’s nuclear programme and whether it was aimed at developing a bomb.
The UN non-proliferation watchdog’s report said he oversaw activities “in support of a possible military dimension to [Iran’s] nuclear programme” within the so-called AMAD Plan.
A 2011 IAEA report described him as the AMAD Plan’s “Executive Officer”, a central figure in suspected Iranian work to develop technology and skills needed for atomic bombs, and suggested he may still have a role in such activity.
Israel has also described the AMAD Plan as Iran’s covert nuclear weapons programme, and says it seized a large chunk of an Iranian nuclear “archive” detailing its work.
In an April 2018 televised presentation about the archive, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu named Fakhrizadeh as a leading figure in what he described as secret nuclear weapons work conducted under the guise of a civilian programme.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands by a screen with an image of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh during a news conference in April 2018 at the Ministry of Defence in Tel Aviv [File: Amir Cohen/Reuters]Citing the archive as evidence, Netanyahu said Israeli agents had retrieved lots of documents from a site in Tehran. At the time, Iran said the documents were fake.
“Remember that name, Fakhrizadeh,” Netanyahu said, describing Fakhrizadeh as the head of AMAD.
Netanyahu said that after AMAD was shut down Fakhrizadeh continued working at an agency within Iran’s Defence Ministry on “special projects”.
In 2018, Israeli broadcaster Kan carried an interview with former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in which he hinted Fakhrizadeh could be a target.
“I know Fakhrizadeh well. He doesn’t know how well I know him. If I met him in the streets most likely I would recognise him,” he said.
“He does not have immunity, he did not have immunity, and I don’t think he will have immunity.”
What does Iran say?
Iran’s defence ministry on Friday identified Fakhrizadeh as Head of Research and Innovation Organization at the ministry. He was also believed to be a senior officer in the elite Revolutionary Guard.
The IAEA long wanted to query Fakhrizadeh as part of a protracted investigation into whether Iran carried out illicit nuclear weapons research.
Iran acknowledged Fakhrizadeh’s existence several years ago but said he was an army officer not involved in the nuclear programme, according to a diplomatic source with knowledge of the matter.
The assassination of four Iranian scientists associated with the nuclear programme between 2010 and 2012 may have stiffened Tehran’s resolve not to give the IAEA access to Fakhrizadeh – for fear this could lead to information about him and his whereabouts leaking.
Iran accused its arch-adversaries – the United States and Israel – of being behind the killings.
Fakhrizadeh was also believed to have been involved in Iran’s ballistic missile development, and an Iranian source told Reuters he was considered as the father of that programme.
He was named in a 2007 UN resolution on Iran as a person involved in nuclear or ballistic missile activities.
What is known about his background?
In May 2011, the exiled opposition group National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) issued a report with what it said was a photograph of Fakhrizadeh, with dark hair and beard stubble.
It was not possible to independently verify the picture.
The NCRI said in the report that Fakhrizadeh was born in 1958 in the Shia Muslim holy city of Qom, was a deputy defence minister and a Revolutionary Guard brigadier-general, held a nuclear engineering doctorate and taught at Iran’s University of Imam Hussein.
A high-ranking Iranian source described Fakhrizadeh to Reuters news agency in 2014 as “an asset and an expert” dedicated to Iran’s technological progress and enjoying the full support of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The source added that Fakhrizadeh had three passports and he travelled a lot, including in Asia, to obtain “the latest information” from abroad, but would not elaborate.
“Remember that name, Fakhrizadeh,” Netanyahu said, describing Fakhrizadeh as the head of AMAD.
Netanyahu said that after AMAD was shut down Fakhrizadeh continued working at an agency within Iran’s Defence Ministry on “special projects”.
In 2018, Israeli broadcaster Kan carried an interview with former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in which he hinted Fakhrizadeh could be a target.
“I know Fakhrizadeh well. He doesn’t know how well I know him. If I met him in the streets most likely I would recognise him,” he said.
“He does not have immunity, he did not have immunity, and I don’t think he will have immunity.”
What does Iran say?
Iran’s defence ministry on Friday identified Fakhrizadeh as Head of Research and Innovation Organization at the ministry. He was also believed to be a senior officer in the elite Revolutionary Guard.
The IAEA long wanted to query Fakhrizadeh as part of a protracted investigation into whether Iran carried out illicit nuclear weapons research.
Iran acknowledged Fakhrizadeh’s existence several years ago but said he was an army officer not involved in the nuclear programme, according to a diplomatic source with knowledge of the matter.
The assassination of four Iranian scientists associated with the nuclear programme between 2010 and 2012 may have stiffened Tehran’s resolve not to give the IAEA access to Fakhrizadeh – for fear this could lead to information about him and his whereabouts leaking.
Iran accused its arch-adversaries – the United States and Israel – of being behind the killings.
Fakhrizadeh was also believed to have been involved in Iran’s ballistic missile development, and an Iranian source told Reuters he was considered as the father of that programme.
He was named in a 2007 UN resolution on Iran as a person involved in nuclear or ballistic missile activities.
What is known about his background?
In May 2011, the exiled opposition group National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) issued a report with what it said was a photograph of Fakhrizadeh, with dark hair and beard stubble.
It was not possible to independently verify the picture.
The NCRI said in the report that Fakhrizadeh was born in 1958 in the Shia Muslim holy city of Qom, was a deputy defence minister and a Revolutionary Guard brigadier-general, held a nuclear engineering doctorate and taught at Iran’s University of Imam Hussein.
A high-ranking Iranian source described Fakhrizadeh to Reuters news agency in 2014 as “an asset and an expert” dedicated to Iran’s technological progress and enjoying the full support of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The source added that Fakhrizadeh had three passports and he travelled a lot, including in Asia, to obtain “the latest information” from abroad, but would not elaborate.
SOURCE : REUTERS
Iran's top nuclear scientist stayed in shadows but his work was uncovered
By Francois Murphy, Parisa Hafezi
VIENNA/DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was killed on Friday, led a life of such secrecy that even his age was under wraps but much about the clandestine nuclear weapons programme he is believed to have run has long been known.
The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it suspected Fakhrizadeh oversaw secret work to fit a warhead on a ballistic missile, test high explosives suitable for a nuclear weapon and process uranium.
Iran insists it never had such a programme nor any ambition to make a bomb. The IAEA and U.S. intelligence agencies believe it had a coordinated weapons programme that it halted in 2003.
Western suspicions that Iran would resume that programme were at the heart of the deal struck in a 2015 deal under which Tehran agreed with world powers to curb its nuclear work in return for the lifting of sanctions.
Israel, Iran’s arch foe, staunchly opposed that deal and President Donald Trump pulled out of it in 2018.
The killing of Fakhrizadeh is a blow to Iran given he was closely guarded and shielded from the public. But Iranian officials say Iran has a network of scientists to fill any gap.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s top authority, promised on Saturday to retaliate for Fakhrizadeh’s killing and said officials must continue to pursue “scientific and technical efforts of Martyr Fakhrizadeh in all the fields he was engaged.”
Iran ramped up nuclear work after Washington quit the 2015 deal, exceeding limits set by the agreement on production of enriched uranium - which can be refined into bomb material - although Tehran still has far less than its pre-2015 stockpile.
PRINCIPAL ROLE
Even as Fakhrizadeh stayed in the shadows, the IAEA in 2011 identified him as the suspected head of the AMAD Plan, which is believed to have been set up about two decades ago to oversee the main elements of the nuclear weapons programme.
While that military programme is thought to have been shelved in 2003, the IAEA said in its 2011 report that some related work continued and Fakhrizadeh retained “the principal organisational role”, citing a member state for the information.
The IAEA said in a 2015 “final assessment” that even those related efforts appeared to have ended in 2009. Fakhrizadeh was the only Iranian scientist named in that 2015 report.
For years, helped by new, intrusive inspection powers, the IAEA produced reports showing Iran was sticking to the main limits imposed by the nuclear deal, whose aim was to extend the time needed to produce enough nuclear material for a bomb, if that was Iran’s goal, to a year from two to three months.
After Trump entered the White House promising to scrap the nuclear deal, Israel stepped up a campaign saying Iran had lied about the extent of its past nuclear activities.
In 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel had seized a huge “archive” of Iranian documents showing Tehran had done more work than previously known.
Israel shared much of the material with the IAEA and allies. Diplomats say the archive appears to have included additional information on activities carried out during Fakhrizadeh’s leadership of the AMAD Plan in the early 2000s.
“Remember that name, Fakhrizadeh,” Netanyahu had said in 2018 presentation on the material.
MOVING UNDERGROUND
Since then, the IAEA has inspected several sites possibly linked to the AMAD Plan, filling in some information gaps but without so far revealing major new areas of weapons work, diplomats say.
Exactly how long Iran would need to build a nuclear weapon if it chose to do so is unclear.
Its main enrichment plant at Natanz, built underground apparently to resist bombardment, is operating at a fraction of its pre-2015 capacity because of the deal but Iran is now enriching at other facilities as well and its stockpile of low-enriched uranium is rising.
Iran has also moved more efficient centrifuges, the machines used to enrich uranium, into the hardened underground plant.
Ariane Tabatabai, a Middle East researcher at the German Marshall Fund and Columbia University, said Fakhrizadeh’s death was a blow, likening it to the killing in January in a U.S. drone strike of Iran’s top military commander Qassem Soleimani.
But she said his work in creating an infrastructure to support Iran’s nuclear work meant “his death won’t fundamentally alter the course of Iran’s nuclear programme.”
This was echoed by Iranian officials.
“He created a network of scientists that will continue his work,” said Fereydoon Abbasi, an Iranian nuclear scientist and former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, who survived an assassination attempt in 2010.
Writing by Francois Murphy; Editing by Edmund Blair
By Francois Murphy, Parisa Hafezi
VIENNA/DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was killed on Friday, led a life of such secrecy that even his age was under wraps but much about the clandestine nuclear weapons programme he is believed to have run has long been known.
The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it suspected Fakhrizadeh oversaw secret work to fit a warhead on a ballistic missile, test high explosives suitable for a nuclear weapon and process uranium.
Iran insists it never had such a programme nor any ambition to make a bomb. The IAEA and U.S. intelligence agencies believe it had a coordinated weapons programme that it halted in 2003.
Western suspicions that Iran would resume that programme were at the heart of the deal struck in a 2015 deal under which Tehran agreed with world powers to curb its nuclear work in return for the lifting of sanctions.
Israel, Iran’s arch foe, staunchly opposed that deal and President Donald Trump pulled out of it in 2018.
The killing of Fakhrizadeh is a blow to Iran given he was closely guarded and shielded from the public. But Iranian officials say Iran has a network of scientists to fill any gap.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s top authority, promised on Saturday to retaliate for Fakhrizadeh’s killing and said officials must continue to pursue “scientific and technical efforts of Martyr Fakhrizadeh in all the fields he was engaged.”
Iran ramped up nuclear work after Washington quit the 2015 deal, exceeding limits set by the agreement on production of enriched uranium - which can be refined into bomb material - although Tehran still has far less than its pre-2015 stockpile.
PRINCIPAL ROLE
Even as Fakhrizadeh stayed in the shadows, the IAEA in 2011 identified him as the suspected head of the AMAD Plan, which is believed to have been set up about two decades ago to oversee the main elements of the nuclear weapons programme.
While that military programme is thought to have been shelved in 2003, the IAEA said in its 2011 report that some related work continued and Fakhrizadeh retained “the principal organisational role”, citing a member state for the information.
The IAEA said in a 2015 “final assessment” that even those related efforts appeared to have ended in 2009. Fakhrizadeh was the only Iranian scientist named in that 2015 report.
For years, helped by new, intrusive inspection powers, the IAEA produced reports showing Iran was sticking to the main limits imposed by the nuclear deal, whose aim was to extend the time needed to produce enough nuclear material for a bomb, if that was Iran’s goal, to a year from two to three months.
After Trump entered the White House promising to scrap the nuclear deal, Israel stepped up a campaign saying Iran had lied about the extent of its past nuclear activities.
In 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel had seized a huge “archive” of Iranian documents showing Tehran had done more work than previously known.
Israel shared much of the material with the IAEA and allies. Diplomats say the archive appears to have included additional information on activities carried out during Fakhrizadeh’s leadership of the AMAD Plan in the early 2000s.
“Remember that name, Fakhrizadeh,” Netanyahu had said in 2018 presentation on the material.
MOVING UNDERGROUND
Since then, the IAEA has inspected several sites possibly linked to the AMAD Plan, filling in some information gaps but without so far revealing major new areas of weapons work, diplomats say.
Exactly how long Iran would need to build a nuclear weapon if it chose to do so is unclear.
Its main enrichment plant at Natanz, built underground apparently to resist bombardment, is operating at a fraction of its pre-2015 capacity because of the deal but Iran is now enriching at other facilities as well and its stockpile of low-enriched uranium is rising.
Iran has also moved more efficient centrifuges, the machines used to enrich uranium, into the hardened underground plant.
Ariane Tabatabai, a Middle East researcher at the German Marshall Fund and Columbia University, said Fakhrizadeh’s death was a blow, likening it to the killing in January in a U.S. drone strike of Iran’s top military commander Qassem Soleimani.
But she said his work in creating an infrastructure to support Iran’s nuclear work meant “his death won’t fundamentally alter the course of Iran’s nuclear programme.”
This was echoed by Iranian officials.
“He created a network of scientists that will continue his work,” said Fereydoon Abbasi, an Iranian nuclear scientist and former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, who survived an assassination attempt in 2010.
Writing by Francois Murphy; Editing by Edmund Blair
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