Hannah Arendt predicted a world of statelessness
BY DANIELLE ALMA RAVITZKI NOVEMBER 18, 2020

MONDOWEISS

HANNAH ARENDT IN 1944. PORTRAIT BY PHOTOGRAPHER FRED STEIN (1909-1967) WHO EMIGRATED 1933 FROM NAZI GERMANY TO FRANCE AND FINALLY TO THE USA. (PHOTO: DPA PICTURE ALLIANCE/ALAMY)


In the aftermath of two world wars, Hannah Arendt recognized that the concept of “citizenship” came hand in hand with statelessness. In her groundbreaking 1951 essay “The Perplexities of the Rights of Man,” published in “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” she wrote of a wave of refugees, stateless people and expatriates on a scale the world had never seen. “What is unprecedented, she declared, “is not the loss of a home but the impossibility of finding a new one.”

Nowadays Palestinians find themselves in the exact same condition.

The origins of the Palestinian stateless condition came after 1948 when around 700,000 were ethnically cleansed from their homes by Zionist militias. According to UNWRA (The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine), Palestinian refugees are “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.”

On July 5, 1950, only a few years after Israel’s inception, the Law of Return was approved, granting every Jew all over the world the right to live in Israel and gain Israeli citizenship. This, then, creates the unbearable reality where the indigenous, native Palestinians of the land cannot go back to their homeland and reunite with their families, while any Jewish person who has no connection to the state of Israel, and can’t even speak Hebrew, can gain Israeli citizenship.

As a result, the adamant struggle of Palestinians to gain the right of return ensued especially after the Six Days War in 1967, when Israel significantly increased the boundaries of its territory and the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights began.

This situation places Palestinian refugees in a unique condition of statelessness, one that is different from other refugees and/or immigrants. Palestinian refugees are scattered all over the world; not all of them are stateless. Some are citizens in the country where they live. For example both Jordan and Lebanon have granted citizenship to more than 100,000 Palestinians, while even greater numbers continue to be stateless and live in refugee camps in those same countries.

According to UNRWA, “nearly one-third of the registered Palestine refugees, more than 1.5 million individuals, live in 58 recognized Palestine refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.” What’s more, “the refugees in camps do not ‘own’ the land on which their shelters were built, but have the right to ‘use’ the land for a residence.”

Meaning, Palestinian refugees living in UN camps are completely stateless, in a condition akin to what Arendt theorized in her “The Perplexities of the Rights of Man.” She wrote, “Suddenly, there was no place on earth where migrants could go without the severest restrictions, no country where they would be assimilated, no territory where they could found a new community of their own.”

In the years since they became refugees, Palestinians experience new regulations that entrench their exclusion. In Lebanon, for example, Palestinian refugees are barred from more than 20 white collar professions and a 2001 law prohibits them from buying property.

Aside from being stateless in the countries they reside, Palestinians also do not have the legal right to go back to their native homeland. As Arendt puts it, with special reference to the Jews in World War II: “The first loss which the rightless suffered was the loss of their homes, and this meant the loss of the entire social texture into which they were born and in which they established for themselves a distinct place in the world.”

In some cases, Palestinian refugees stand outside the judicial order even when they are citizens – even within Israel itself, Palestinian citizens are subjected to over 65 laws denying them basic equal, civil and human rights, culminating in Israel’s most recent legislation of the “Nation-State Law.” This law enshrines Israel’s apartheid-like discrimination into its equivalent of a constitution by codifying “the right to self-determination” is exclusive to “the Jewish people.”

Arendt concluded stateless people are ardent exemplars of how human rights are intrinsically connected to national rights, with the latter outweighing and grounding the former. Those who do not belong to a specific political community, like Palestinians, stand outside the juridical order and are therefore regarded as undeserving of the security that should be provided by the state. As the professor of philosophy at the New School Richard Bernstein piercingly remarks in his review of Arendt, “throughout history people have been uprooted from their homes.”

What is ironic, is that Arendt’s analysis was originally concerned with the condition of Jews during and in the aftermath of World War II, while presently it is the Palestinians who find themselves in an analogous situation of rightlessness, mostly in virtue of the creation and expansion of the state of Israel. Arendt’s concepts and thesis, hence, can help us shed light on the many arduous difficulties and dilemmas related to the question and aporia of human rights in the contemporary world and the existence of the nation-state.

France: Protesters clash with police over new security law

Tens of thousands demonstrate nationwide against security legislation that would restrict sharing images of police.

Protesters hold a banner reading 'For our freedom' and show a defaced portrait of Paris police prefect Didier Lallement during a demonstration in Paris against the security law [Francois Mori/AP]

28 Nov 2020

Police and demonstrators have clashed in Paris as tens of thousands took the streets to protest against new security legislation, a controversy intensified by the beating and racial abuse of a Black man by officers that shocked France.

The demonstrations against the security law – which would restrict the police officers’ faces – took place nationwide on Saturday with 46,000 marching in Paris according to the government and several fires erupting after clashes.

The case of abuse shocked France with celebrities and politicians alike condemning the officers’ actions, and has brought the debate over President Emmanuel Macron’s law to boiling point.

Macron on Friday called the incident an “unacceptable attack” and asked the government to come up with proposals to “fight against discrimination”.

He said the images of the beating of Black music producer Michel Zecler by police officers in Paris last weekend “shame us”.

The incident has magnified concerns about alleged systemic racism in the police force.

Firefighters put out a fire on a burning car during a demonstration in Paris against a security law that would restrict sharing images of police [Francois Mori/AP]There were tensions in Paris as a car, newspaper kiosk and brasserie were set on fire close to Place de la Bastille, police said.

Some protesters threw stones at the security forces who responded by firing tear gas, an AFP correspondent said.

Police complained that protesters were impeding fire services from putting out the blazes and said nine people had been detained by the early evening.

But Al Jazeera’s Natacha Butler reporting from Paris said “those were relatively minor incidents in what was a very peaceful protest”.

A demonstrator stands by tear gas canisters during a demonstration in Paris [Francois Mori/AP]“Police everywhere, justice nowhere”, “police state” and “smile while you are beaten” were among the slogans brandished by protesters who marched from Place de la Republique to the nearby Place de la Bastille in Paris.

“We have felt for a long time to have been the victim of institutionalised racism from the police,” said Mohamed Magassa 35, who works in a reception centre for minors.

“But now we feel that this week all of France has woken up,” he told the AFP news agency.

“The fundamental and basic liberties of our democracy are being attacked – freedom of expression and information,” added Sophie Misiraca, 46, a lawyer.

A protester holds a poster reading ‘Land of human rights of the police’ during a demonstration in Paris [Francois Mori/AP]

‘Political crisis’

An investigation has been opened against the four police involved in Zecler’s beating but commentators say that the images – first published by the Loopsider news site – may never have been made public if the contentious Article 24 of the security legislation was made law.

One of the most controversial elements of the new law is Article 24, which would criminalise the publication of images of on-duty police officers with the intent of harming their “physical or psychological integrity”.

Under the article, offenders could be sentenced to up to a year in jail, and fined 45,000 euros ($53,000) for sharing images of police officers.

It was passed by the National Assembly last week, but is awaiting Senate approval, sparking mass protests.

Protesters are calling for the article to be withdrawn, claiming that it contradicts “the fundamental public freedoms of our Republic”.

Rally organisers are calling for Article 24 to be withdrawn, claiming that it contradicts ‘the fundamental public freedoms of our Republic’ [Benoit Tessier/Reuters]Thousands also took part in other marches in France including in Bordeaux, Lille, Montpellier and Nantes.

“I’m just waiting for the law to be withdrawn,” said Adele Lequertier, a 22-year-old sociology student, who took part in the Montpellier march.

In a sign that the government could be preparing to backtrack, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Friday he would appoint a commission to redraft Article 24.

But he was forced into a U-turn even on this proposal after parliament speaker Richard Ferrand – a close Macron ally – accused the premier of trying to usurp the role of parliament.

The government says the provision is intended to protect officers from doxxing and online abuse, but critics say it is further evidence of the Macron administration’s slide to the right.

“The police violence has left Emmanuel Macron facing a political crisis,” Le Monde daily reported.

Media unions say it could give police a green light to prevent journalists – and social media users – from documenting abuses.

France has been rocked by a series of protests [Benoit Tessier/Reuters]The images of the beating of Zecler emerged days after police were already under fire over the forcible removal of a migrant camp in central Paris on Monday, when journalists on the ground recorded police brutality.

Three of the police involved in the beating of Zecler are being probed for using racial violence and all four are still being held for questioning after their detention Saturday was extended for another 24 hours, prosecutors said.

Al Jazeera’s Natacha Butler said the French interior minister, one of the main supporters of the security law, is going to be questioned in the National Assembly on Monday about recent incidents of police violence.

“We’re seeing a government that seems in crisis. Macron… has called on his government to try to come up with solutions and propose ways to reinforce confidence between the police and the public again.

“It’s hard to see what exactly the government is going to come up with because most people said… [they simply want] this law to be withdrawn,” Butler said.

Dex Estacado, a representative at the Committee for Justice and Truth for Adama told Al Jazeera from Paris that as a Black man living Paris, he could be asked by officers for an identity check as often as seven times a day.

“It happens a lot if I’m not polite enough, if I don’t know how to manage the group of police officers that talk to me. I could get beat down and I could basically die,” Estacado said.

“The court … in France has condemned France as a state [that conducts] identity checks on non-white people on a regular basis.

“The environment that I’m living in is one of pretty much trying to manage fear.”

SOURCE : AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Fires blaze in Paris streets during protests over new police law

VIDEO https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2020-11-29/Fires-blaze-in-Paris-streets-during-protests-over-new-police-law-VNpEwFrbAA/index.html

Security forces have fired tear gas and stun grenades at Paris protesters marching against police violence and a draft law to protect officers' identity – after demonstrators erected barricades and threw fireworks and stones.

Across France, thousands of people took part in demonstrations after images of police beating a black music producer fanned anger about a new law that is seen as curbing the right of journalists to report on police abuse.

In Paris protesters started fires and clashed with police who tried to block access to certain streets.

In Lille, Rennes, Strasbourg and other cities, thousands more protested against the draft bill that makes it a crime to circulate images of police officers in certain circumstances, which opponents say limits press freedom.

In the western city of Nantes, police said around 3,500 rallied, while organizers put the crowd at up to 7,000.

City officials in southern Montpellier said 3,800 people were demonstrating on Saturday, more than double the number who attended a march a week ago, while organizers said there were 5,000 people.

"I'm just waiting for the law to be withdrawn," said Adele Lequertier, a 22-year-old sociology student, who took part in the Montpellier march.


Police fired tear gas as fireworks were launched at them during protests in Paris. /Alain Jocard/AFP

President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that images of the beating of music producer Michel Zecler in Paris last weekend "shame us."

"Police everywhere, justice nowhere" and "police state" were among the slogans brandished by protesters in Place de la Republique in Paris.

An investigation has been opened against the four police involved in the alleged racial attack as critics say that the images would never had been made public if the contentious Article 24 of the security legislation was made law.


Protests come after images have emerged of police beating a black music producer. /Alain Jocard/AFP

The article would criminalize the publication of images of on-duty police officers with the intent of harming their "physical or psychological integrity." It was passed by the National Assembly, although it is awaiting Senate approval.

Under the article, offenders could be fined $53,000 and sentenced to up to a year in jail for sharing images of police officers.

The controversy over the law and police violence is developing into another crisis for the government as Macron confronts the pandemic and its economic fallout.



Thousands of people have been protesting around France over the new law, which is claimed to reduce press freedom. /Thomas Coex/AFP

The images of the beating of Zecler emerged days after the police were already being criticized over the forcible removal of a migrant camp in central Paris.

A series of high-profile cases against police officers regarding the mistreatment of black or Arab citizens has raised accusations of institutionalized racism. The force has insisted violations are the fault of isolated individuals.

In a letter seen by the AFP news agency, Paris police chief Didier Lallement wrote to officers to tell them: "In the coming days, the coming weeks... there's no doubt you will face difficulty, doubt, even anger and fear." But he insisted that he could "count on the integrity, sense of honor and ethics" in the force.


Source(s): AFP ,Reuters

The anti-refugee police riot in Paris: A warning to the working class

Alex Lantier WSWS
27 November 2020

Heavily armed riot police descended on a tent camp on Republic Square in Paris Monday night and staged a fascistic attack that shocked millions of workers and youth internationally.

Police savagely beat defenseless refugees in their tents and chased them through the streets of Paris, firing tear gas. When elected officials tried to speak to refugees who fled to City Hall, they were kettled behind a police cordon. Moreover, even as the government adopted an authoritarian “global security” law that includes a ban on filming of police in public, under pain of one year in prison and a €45,000 fine, police assaulted journalists covering their operation and were videoed throwing journalist Rémy Buisine to the ground and beating him.

As public anger mounted, and protests broke out on Republic Square, various newspapers and politicians suddenly rediscovered their objections to police brutality. The New York Times criticized the “drift towards repression” in France. Socialist Party (PS) Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo wrote to the Interior Ministry about “the use of disproportionate and brutal force,” before adding, “Unfortunately, this unacceptable episode is not without precedent.”

Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s Unsubmissive France (LFI) party criticized violence against “people who are only demanding their human rights.”

President Emmanuel Macron’s government now feels obliged to criticize its own operation, even trying to turn the crisis to its advantage. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has promised an investigation, claiming he is “shocked,” and Prime Minister Jean Castex has pledged to submit the ban on filming police to a challenge at the Constitutional Council once the “global security” law is adopted.

These are false promises aiming to lull workers and youth to sleep. The brutal state attack on refugees is not an isolated case of “overaggressive policing” by a few bad cops encouraged by a poorly drafted law. Amid a global economic collapse driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, an irrepressible conflict is emerging internationally between the working class and the financial aristocracy, powerful sections of which support building fascist police states. The alternative of socialist revolution or capitalist barbarism is starkly posed.

Even if the filming ban were overturned, this would not halt the Macron administration’s far-right evolution. It is also passing laws to make student occupations of universities punishable by three years in prison and a €45,000 fine, and reviving the drastic pension cut it promised to abandon during the pandemic. Its “global security” law would deploy drones against protests and set up emergency joint coordination of operations by national, municipal and paramilitary police and private security agencies.

With 450,000 armed men to be deployed against the population, Le Monde wrote, France has one policeman “per 150 inhabitants (against 1 per 280 in 2018),” making it “the European Union’s security leader.”

Given the massive police state build-up, the remarks of neofascist retired chief of staff General Pierre de Villiers to the far-right magazine Current Values bear examination.

Last year, after the Macron government had authorized the army to open fire on “yellow vests” protesting social inequality, de Villiers called for more “firmness” against the workers. Even after riot police had arrested over 10,000 people and wounded 4,400 in the protests, he demanded harsher repression of railway and education strikes: “A gulf has emerged between those who lead and those who obey. This gulf is profound. The ‘yellow vests’ were already a first sign of this… We must restore order; things cannot continue this way.”

Last week, de Villiers told Current Values the crisis is so deep that “profound transformations” are inevitable. “Today there is not only the security crisis but the pandemic, all amid an economic, social and political crisis and with our leaders no longer enjoying any broader confidence.”

Since “these suppressed resentments can all explode at the same time… not just in France but in the whole world,” de Villiers said, “We must think the unthinkable.”

Asked what this meant, de Villiers all but openly endorsed a neofascist dictatorship: “The rule of law is obviously a nice thing, but sometimes you also have to think strategically.”

The COVID-19 pandemic is a trigger event in world history. Already before the pandemic, an international eruption of class struggle against unsustainable levels of social inequality had deeply shaken the ruling elite. Now, as deaths mount and with the economy collapsing, social misery is rising at a rate not seen since the Great Depression and the fascist era of the 1930s, when the financial aristocracy pursued a fascistic, class-based policy to defend its privileges against the working class and turned to military conflict against their rivals during a decade that ended in world war.

While seizing trillions of euros and dollars in public funds for bank bailouts, the world’s ruling elites are ordering workers and youth back to work and school amid the pandemic. After the EU’s €2 trillion bailouts, France’s wealthiest have recouped their losses from the initial crash during the pandemic: Bernard Arnault and family are back to $142 billion, Françoise Bettencourt to $72 billion, and François Pinault to $46 billion, according to Forbes.

Workers are told, however, that there is no money for health care or jobs, or to fund a longer lockdown to halt the spread of the virus during which workers and small businessmen receive full financial support. The trade unions in France, Germany and elsewhere throughout Europe issued public endorsements of EU bailouts and backed the back-to-school campaign. As a result, there have been a staggering 265,891 COVID-19 deaths in the United States and 365,639 in Europe—figures set to rise explosively in the coming winter months.

Such levels of inequality are incompatible with democratic forms of rule, which are disintegrating. After trying to illegally deploy the military against nationwide protests on the police killing of George Floyd, US President Donald Trump has refused to admit defeat in the 2020 elections, ominously reshuffled the Pentagon leadership, and backed far-right militias that tried to assassinate top officials, including Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. The Democratic Party has consciously avoided alerting the public, let alone making any attempt to mobilize popular opposition to the threatened coup.

In France and across Europe, far-right police states are being built. Pseudo-left parties like Mélenchon’s LFI are no alternative to the fascistic policy of de Villiers, which Macron is implementing with EU support. Macron has led the far-right turn, hailing Nazi-collaborationist dictator Philippe Pétain as a “great soldier” as he ordered riot police to assault the “yellow vests.” Mélenchon’s parliamentary faction itself supported the 2015-2017 Socialist Party (PS) state of emergency, during which the current police machine was prepared and first deployed against social protests targeting the draconian PS labor law.

These events confirm the analysis of the Parti de l’égalité socialiste (PES), the French section of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), in the 2017 presidential elections. It called for an active boycott and a mobilization of the working class against a second round between Macron and neofascist candidate Marine Le Pen.

The PES warned that rule by Macron was no genuine alternative to the far-right regime a neofascist president Le Pen would oversee. It opposed the reactionary role of pseudo-left groups like the LFI, which refused to warn against Macron’s own fascistic policy agenda. This has proven correct.

The way forward against the pandemic and the threat of dictatorship is the mobilization of the working class internationally on a socialist program. The struggle for an international general strike led by independent safety committees in schools and workplaces to compel an end to the back-to-work campaign and halt contagion entails a struggle against the far-right and police violence. Ruling elites that have made themselves guilty of crimes and reactionary plots against the population must be expropriated by the working class and their property impounded and used to meet social needs

Analysis |
Killing Iran’s Nuke Chief May Hurt Israel More Than He Ever Did in His Life

There are two possible explanations to the timing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh’s killing. Both are tied to Biden’s inauguration on January 20, and both are extremely high-risk

Students of Iran's Basij paramilitary force set to burn U.S. and Israeli flags during a rally, Tehran, November 28, 2020

Credit: ATTA KENARE - AFP


Anshel Pfeffer 

HAARETZ.COM

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, leader and key coordinator of Iran’s nuclear research, was assassinated north of Tehran on Friday morning, suffering a fate similar to other figures involved in Iran's nuclear program.

Fakhrizadeh has been a potential target for Israel, as well as other nations, for over a decade. It’s possible that the necessary intelligence and operational moment presented itself only now, but given the timing, it’s more likely that the unique window of opportunity was created by diplomatic circumstances.

Two assumptions have guided the work of Israeli intelligence in recent weeks. The first is that Iran will not embark on a drastic course until the regime has a clear idea of the Biden administration’s exact policy regarding a return to the 2015 nuclear agreement. The second is that there is a very low probability that Trump would launch a military campaign against Iran before he leaves office, as there are no signs of the United States boosting its defenses in the region ahead of a possibility of Iranian retaliation.

>> Trump might leave scorched earth on his way out. Netanyahu is happy to lend him a lighter | Noa Landau

But the Israeli military is not blasé about the prospect of a rapid escalation. In October, the military carried out a comprehensive exercise simulating the launch of long-range Iranian missiles at Israel. And as officers have sought to stress in recent days, even after the killing of Fakhrizadeh, while a full-blown military conflict is unlikely, the ongoing clandestine war has been stepped up.

ATTEMPTS TO UNDERMINE IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM

JANUARY 12, 2010

Senior Iranian nuclear scientist Prof. Massoud Ali Mohammadi assassinated in northern Tehran

SEPTEMBER 2010

A computer virus known as "Stuxnet" deployed against the operating systems of the Nantanz nuclear reactor

OCTOBER 29. 2010

The most senior scientist in the Iranian nuclear program at the time, Prof. Majid Shahariari, and another nuclear scientist are killed in two separate assassinations in Tehran 

JULY 23, 2011

A physics professor involved in the Iranian nuclear program is killed by gunmen on motorcycles in Tehran

JANUARY 11, 2012

A chemistry expert who also served as deputy director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility was killed in an explosion in Tehran

JANUARY 31, 2018

Israel broke into a warehouse where documents from the Iranian nuclear program were hidden on the outskirts of Tehran and stole tens of thousands of secret documents

JUNE 26, 2020

Explosions rock Parchin, home to a military base where it was previously said that Iran conducts tests of explosive triggers that could be used in nuclear weapons
JUNE 30, 2020

An explosion at a missile production facility in Khojir, not far from Perchin, a base surrounded by underground tunnels believed by the West to have served as a large ammunitions depot. The base produces fuels to propel the Revolutionary Guards' ballistic missile apparatus. 

JULY 2, 2020

Explosion at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility damages a structure containing advanced centrifuges. In the West, the explosion is attributed to Israel, and it is estimated that Iran's nuclear program is set back by one to two years as a result of the blast

JULY 19, 2020

Blast reported at a power plant in Isfahan, in central Iran

JULY 28, 2020

According to a report by the Iranian Student News Agency, an explosion of fuel tanks caused a fire in the Dolat industrial zone in the Kermanshah province in western Iran. The deputy commander of the province's firefighting services reported several injuries but no casaulties

NOVEMBER 27, 2020

Leader and key coordinator of Iran's nuclear program, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, is assasinated near Tehran

If Israel is indeed behind the assassination of Fakhrizadeh, there will be no official confirmation in the foreseeable future. U.S. President Donald Trump, however, retweeted comments on the assassination by Haaretz colleague Yossi Melman, which many interpreted to mean that the killing was orchestrated by Israel with a hearty American blessing. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, cryptically referred to “things I can’t tell you” in a video he uploaded this weekend.

There are two likely backstories to the timing behind the assassination. One, that Israel had opportunities in the past to kill Fakhrizadeh but refrained from doing so, either because it didn’t have American backing or because it saw no need to rock the boat. The regime in Israel, like in Tehran, is unclear about Biden’s Iran policy, and thus decided to take advantage of Trump’s last days in power.

The second explanation is that Israel assassinated Fakhrizadeh at the request of the United States. Israel may have possessed the capabilities and intel to kill him for a while but wasn’t eager to, fearing severe repercussions, and because ultimately the death of one man, albeit the “Father,” would do little damage to an already-advanced nuclear program. In this scenario, Israel acted at the urging of the Iran hawks in the Trump administration who are trying to make it harder for their successors to engage with Iran.

There is recent precedent for this in the killing of Al-Qaida leader Abu Muhammad al-Masri this August in Tehran, which according to The New York Times, was carried out by Mossad, at the CIA’s request. Israeli intelligence officials have stated that normally, al-Masri wouldn’t be seen as a target worthy of the considerable resources and risk involved in an assassination in Tehran, but when the Americans ask, Israel says yes.

Both possibilities involve a troubling degree of risk. If Netanyahu, his Mossad Chief Yossi Cohen and whatever cabinet ministers are in on the secret believe that now is the time to take out high-value targets, then they are banking firstly on the Iranians to self-restrain, for fear of either provoking Trump or missing out on a new deal with Biden, and secondly on Joe Biden’s team to draw a line under what happened before he came to office.

Is this assassination (or any other operation in Netanyahu’s repertoire) worth the risk that the more cautious members in Iran's leadership may lose the argument and decide to retaliate after all? And once the window of opportunity closes on January 20, will Joe Biden and his staff shut Israel out of consultations, having had enough of Netanyahu dictating U.S policy? If so, Fakhrizadeh may end up causing more damage to Israel in his death than he ever did in his life.

Will the world community condemn the murder of Iran’s nuclear scientist?
The assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist, likely by Israel with the go-ahead from the US administration, is a desperate attempt to use Donald Trump’s last days in office to sabotage Joe Biden’s chances of successful diplomacy with Iran.

THE SITE OF MOHSEN FAKHRIZADEH’S ASSASSINATION, NOVEMBER 27, 2020 

(PHOTO: FARS NEWS AGENCY/WIKIMEDIA)

BY MEDEA BENJAMIN AND ARIEL GOLD 

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

Israel used all four years of Trump’s presidency to entrench its systems of occupation and apartheid. Now that Joe Biden has won the U.S. election, the assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist, likely by Israel with the go-ahead from the US administration, is a desperate attempt to use Trump’s last days in office to sabotage Biden’s chances of successful diplomacy with Iran. Biden, Congress and the world community can’t let that happen.

On Friday, November 27, Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was assassinated in the Iranian city of Absard outside of Tehran. First, a truck with explosives blew up near the car carrying Fakhrizadeh. Then, gunmen started firing on Fakhrizadeh’s car. The immediate speculation was that Israel had carried out the attack, perhaps with the support of the Iranian terrorist group the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (MEK). Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted that there were “serious indications of [an] Israeli role” in the assassination. 

All indications indeed point to Israel. In 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu identified this scientist, Fakhrizadeh, as a target of his administration during a presentation in which he claimed that Israel had obtained secret Iranian files that alleged the country was not actually abiding by the Iran Nuclear Deal. “Remember that name, Fakhrizadeh. So here’s his directive, right here,” Netanyahu said. 

Fakhrizadeh was far from the first assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist. Between 2010 and 2012, four Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated—Masoud Alimohammadi, Majid Shahriari, Darioush Rezaeinejad and Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan. Though Israel never took official credit for the extrajudicial executions, reports were fairly conclusive that Israel, working with the MEK, were behind the killings. The Israeli government never denied the allegations. 

The assassination of Fakhrizadeh also follows reports that the Israeli government recently instructed its senior military officials to prepare for a possible U.S. strike on Iran, likely referring to a narrowly averted plan by President Trump to bomb Iran’s Natanz nuclear site. Furthermore, there was a clandestine meeting between Netanyahu and Saudi ruler Mohammed bin Salman. Among the topics of conversation were normalization between the two countries and their shared antagonism towards Iran.

Israel’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear activities are particularly galling given that Israel, not Iran, is the only country in the Middle East in possession of nuclear weapons, and Israel refuses to sign the International Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Iran, on the other hand, doesn’t have nuclear weapons and it has opened itself up to the most intrusive international inspections ever implemented. Adding to this absurd double standard is the intense pressure on Iran from the United States—a nation that has more nuclear weapons than any country on earth.

Given the close relationship between Netanyahu and Trump, and the seriousness of this attack, it is very likely that this assassination was carried out with the green light from Trump himself. Trump has spent his time in the White House destroying the progress the Obama administration made in easing the conflict with Iran. He withdrew from the nuclear deal and imposed an unending stream of crippling sanctions that have affected everything from the price of food and housing, to Iran’s ability to obtain life-saving medicines during the pandemic. He has blocked Iran from getting an IMF $5 billion emergency loan to deal with the pandemic. In January, Trump brought the US to the brink of war by assassinating Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, and in an early November meeting with his top security advisors, and right before the assassination of Fakhrizadeh, Trump himself reportedly raised the possibility of a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. 

After the news broke of the assassination, Trump expressed implicit approval of the attack by retweeting Israeli journalist and expert on the Israeli Mossad intelligence service, Yossi Melman, who described the killing of Fahkrizadeh as a “major psychological and professional blow for Iran.”

Iran has responded to these intense provocations with extreme patience and reserve. The government was hoping for a change in the White House and Biden’s victory signaled the possibility of both the U.S. and Iran going back into compliance with the nuclear deal. This recent assassination, however, further strengthens the hands of Iranian hardliners who say it was a mistake to negotiate with the United States, and that Iran should just leave the nuclear deal and build a nuclear weapon for its own defense. 

Iranian-American analyst Negar Mortazavi bemoaned the chilling effect the assassination will have on Iran’s political space. “The atmosphere will be even more securitized, civil society and political opposition will be pressured even more, and the anti-West discourse will be strengthened in Iran’s upcoming presidential election,” she tweeted.



The hardliners already won the majority of seats in the February parliamentary elections and are predicted to win the presidential elections scheduled for June. So the window for negotiations is a narrow one of four months immediately after Biden’s inauguration. W. What happens between now and January 20 could derail negotiations before they even start. 

Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council, said that US and Israeli efforts to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program “have now morphed into Trump & Netanyahu sabotaging the next US President. They are trying to goad Iran into provocations & accelerating nuclear work—exactly what they claim to oppose. Their real fear is US & Iran talking.”



That’s why U.S. members of Congress, and President-elect Joe Biden himself, must vigorously condemn this act and affirm their commitment to the US rejoining the nuclear deal. When Israel assassinated other nuclear scientists during the Obama administration, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denounced the murders, understanding that such illegal actions made negotiations infinitely more difficult.

The European Union, as well as some important US figures, have already condemned the attack. Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy pointed out the risks involved in normalizing assassinations, how the killing will make it harder to restart the Iran Nuclear agreement, and how the assassination of General Soleimani backfired from a security standpoint. Former Obama advisor Ben Rhodes tweeted that it was an “outrageous action aimed at undermining diplomacy,” and former CIA head John Brennan called the assassination “criminal” and “highly reckless,” risking “lethal retaliation and a new round of regional conflict,” but rather than putting the responsibility on the U.S. and Israel to stop the provocations, he called on Iran to “be wise” and “resist the urge to respond.”





Many on Twitter have raised the question of what the world response would be if the roles were reversed and Iran assassinated an Israeli nuclear scientist. Without a doubt, the U.S. administration, whether Democrat or Republican, would be outraged and supportive of a swift military response. But if we want to avoid escalation, then we must hope that Iran will not retaliate, at least not during Trump’s last days in office.

The only way to stop this crisis from spiraling out of control is for the world community to condemn the act, and demand a UN investigation and accountability for the perpetrators. The countries that joined Iran and the United States in signing the 2015 nuclear agreement —Russia, China, Germany, the UK and France—must not only oppose the assassination but publicly recommit to upholding the nuclear deal. President-elect Joe Biden must send a clear message to Israel that under his administration, these illegal acts will have consequences. He must also send a clear message to Iran that he intends to quickly re-enter the nuclear deal, stop blocking Iran’s $5 billion IMF loan request, and begin a new era of diplomacy to dial back the intense conflict he inherited from Trump’s recklessness.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh assassination: How the world reacted

Turkey describes killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh as ‘act of terrorism’ while the EU calls it ‘criminal’ and urges ‘maximum restraint’.

Prominent Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh is seen in Iran, in this undated photo 

[File: Official Khamenei Website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout/Reuters]

28 Nov 2020

A high-ranking Iranian nuclear physicist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was assassinated in an ambush near Iran’s capital, Tehran, on Friday.

Fakhrizadeh was shot “by terrorists” in his vehicle in Absard, a suburb in eastern Tehran, later succumbing to his wounds in what was described as a “martyr’s death”, according to Iran’s foreign ministry.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the killing of Fakhrizadeh, who had long been suspected by Western and Israeli intelligence of leading the nation’s military nuclear programme until its disbanding in the early 2000s.

But some have pointed the finger at Israel and the United States for the assassination, which threatens to increase tensions between Tehran and Washington in the final days of the Donald Trump presidency.

Here is how the world has reacted so far to Fakhrizadeh’s killing:

Iran

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei said Iran’s first priority after the killing was the “definitive punishment of the perpetrators and those who ordered it”, while President Hassan Rouhani accused Israel of being behind the assassination.

“Once again, the evil hands of global arrogance were stained with the blood of the mercenary usurper Zionist regime,” Rouhani said in a statement.

The country’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also accused Israel of carrying out the attack.

Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today. This cowardice—with serious indications of Israeli role—shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators

Iran calls on int'l community—and especially EU—to end their shameful double standards & condemn this act of state terror.
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) November 27, 2020


Israel

Cabinet minister for Settlement Affairs Tzachi Hanegbi said he had “no clue” who was behind the Fakhrizadeh killing.

“I have no clue who did it. It’s not that my lips are sealed because I’m being responsible, I really have no clue,” Hanegbi, a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told N12’s Meet the Press.

European Union

A statement from a spokesperson for the European Union called Fakhrizadeh’s killing “a criminal act” that “runs counter to the principle of respect for human rights the EU stands for”.

It also urged all parties to show “calm and maximum restraint”.

“In these uncertain times, it is more important than ever for all parties to remain calm and exercise maximum restraint in order to avoid escalation which cannot be in anyone’s interest,” the statement said.

Qatar

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani condemned the assassination in a phone call with Zarif.

In the phone call, Sheikh Mohammed said “such steps will only contribute to pouring more fuel on the fire at a time when the region and the international community are searching for ways to reduce tension and return to the table of dialogue and diplomacy”, according to QNA, Qatar’s state news agency.

He also extended Qatar’s condolences to the government and the people of Iran and called for self-restraint.

United Nations

The UN condemned Fakhrizadeh’s killing while urging restraint in order to avoid an “escalation of tensions”.

“We urge restraint and the need to avoid any actions that could lead to an escalation of tensions in the region,” a UN spokesman said. “We condemn any assassination or extrajudicial killing.”

Syria

Syria’s Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad accused Israel and “those who supported it” of being behind Fakhrizadeh’s assassination, an act he said would only fuel more tensions in the region.

Mekdad was quoted by state media as telling the Iranian envoy in Damascus that Syria was confident Iran would confront what he called a “terrorist act”.

Turkey

Turkey’s parliamentary speaker referred to those responsible for the killing as “terrorist”.

“The assassination of the Iranian scientist was an act of terrorism. Whether it was committed by an illegal or a “legal” organization or a state makes no difference,” Mustafa Sentop said on Twitter.

Assassination of an Iranian scientist is an act of terrorism. Whether it is committed by an illegal or a “legal” organization or a State makes no difference. Terrorism is always terrorism, anyone who commits an act of terrorism is a terrorist. We oppose illegality in intl. arena.
— Prof. Dr. Mustafa Şentop (@MustafaSentop) November 28, 2020


Germany

Germany called for calm and said all sides should avoid taking any steps that could lead to escalation.

“We call on all parties to avoid taking any action which could lead to a new escalation of the situation” which “we absolutely do not need at this moment,” a German foreign ministry spokesman said.

Venezuela

Minister of Foreign Affairs Jorge Arreaza condemned the attack on Twitter, calling the killing of the scientist a “terrorist attack”.


#COMUNICADO | Venezuela condena el asesinato del eminente científico iraní, Dr. Mohsen Fajrizade, Presidente de la Organización de Investigación e Innovación Defensiva de la República Islámica de Irán, quien perdió la vida en un atentado terrorista en las cercanías de Teherán. pic.twitter.com/hWQDvLGESS
— Jorge Arreaza M (@jaarreaza) November 27, 2020


SOURCE : AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Killing of Iranian scientist a ‘violation of human rights’: Qatar

Qatar’s deputy PM says assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh ‘will only contribute to pouring more fuel on the fire’.

Qatar's Deputy Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani expressed his condolences in a phone call with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif

 [File: Erin Scott/AFP]

28 Nov 2020

Qatar has condemned Friday’s assassination of Iranian nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, calling it “a clear violation of human rights”.

Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani expressed his condolences in a phone call on Saturday with Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif.

KEEP READING

Top Iranian nuclear scientist assassinated near TehranMohsen Fakhrizadeh: Who was the assassinated Iranian scientist?

Rouhani accuses ‘mercenary’ Israel of killing top Iran scientist

Iranian media reported on Friday that Fakhrizadeh died in hospital after he was shot in his car in an ambush east of Tehran.

Fakhrizadeh served as the head of the research and innovation organisation of Iran’s defence ministry at the time of his death.

The West has long suspected Fakhrizadeh of being the mastermind of Iranian efforts to develop nuclear weapons, but Iran denies he was involved in any such undertaking.

Al Thani stressed that the scientist’s murder “will only contribute to pouring more fuel on the fire at a time when the region and the international community are searching for ways to reduce tension and return to the table of dialogue and diplomacy”, Qatar news agency (QNA) e

Al Thani “called for restraint,” it said.

During the call, the ministers reviewed bilateral cooperation relations and issues of common concern, QNA reported.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has accused “mercenary” Israel of killing its top scientist, state TV reported on Saturday.

Israel has declined to comment on the killing of Fakhrizadeh.

The assassination comes as US President Donald Trump, who has been fervently backed by Israel in his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, is slated to leave office in less than two months after losing the presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden.

In May 2018, Trump unilaterally withdrew from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and imposed harsh economic sanctions on Iran that have only escalated since.

In the past year, the Trump administration has also tried to make it harder for a Biden administration to come back to the nuclear accord through retargeting Iranian entities and individuals that were already sanctioned with new terrorism-related designations.

SOURCE : AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh: Who was the assassinated Iranian scientist?

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.

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

Former CIA Director John Brennan says the assassination of a top Iranian nuclear scientist was 'criminal' and risked inflaming conflict in the Middle East
Sophia Ankel

Former CIA director John Brennan speaks during a forum on election security in Washington DC, on October 30, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Former CIA Director John Brennan has condemned the assassination of a top Iranian nuclear scientist on Friday, calling it "criminal" and "highly reckless."
Brennan, who served between 2013 and 2017, also said he did not know who was to blame for the killing but that it "would be a flagrant violation of international law."
Details on the attack remain slim but Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif, pointed the finger at Israel on Friday, saying there are "serious indications" of Israeli involvement.

Former CIA Director John Brennan has condemned a top Iranian nuclear scientist's reported assassination on Friday, calling it "criminal" and "highly reckless."

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a former officer in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was killed in an ambush on his car on Friday while driving through Absard, a town located 50 miles outside the capital Tehran.

"This was a criminal act & highly reckless," Brennan tweeted on Friday afternoon. "It risks lethal retaliation & a new round of regional conflict."

Brennan, who served under the Obama administration, also said he did not know who was to blame for the killing but that it "would be a flagrant violation of international law."

"I do not know whether a foreign government authorized or carried out the murder of Fakhrizadeh. Such an act of state-sponsored terrorism would be a flagrant violation of international law & encourage more governments to carry out lethal attacks against foreign officials," Brennan tweeted.
—John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) November 27, 2020

Details on the reported attack remain slim. In a statement on Friday, Iran's defense ministry said that "armed terrorists" had targeted a vehicle carrying Fakhrizadeh, adding that the scientist "was severely injured."

He later died in the hospital.

No group or government has claimed responsibility for Friday's attack so far.

However, Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif, pointed the finger at Israel on Friday, saying there are "serious indications" of Israeli involvement.

He tweeted: "Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today. This cowardice — with serious indications of Israeli role — shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators."

The reported assassination also came less than two weeks after the New York Times reported that President Trump had consulted senior advisors about the possibility of conducting a strike on Iran's main nuclear facility.

Trump was reportedly advised against this, with several top aides warning it could trigger a broader conflict with the Islamic republic.

An Iranian security guard standing in front of the Bushehr nuclear power plant on August 20, 2010 in southern Iran XINHUA/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Fakhrizadeh's reported assassination comes less than a year after Trump ordered a drone strike that killed Qassem Solemani — the country's top general — pushing US-Iran relations to the brink of war.

In August, Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, was gunned down on the streets of Tehran by Israeli operatives acting at the behest of the US, the New York Times reported this month.

Both Israel and Washington have yet to comment on the attack.

On Friday, Trump retweeted an Israeli journalist, Yossi Melman, who called the killing "a major psychological and professional blow for Iran."

Brennan is a staunch Trump critic, who told Business Insider before the 2020 election that the "dishonesty" and disinformation coming out of the Trump administration is just as dangerous as foreign interference in the election.

After Trump's election loss, Brennan tweeted that he now plans "to ignore Trump," and will "leave his fate to our judicial system, his infamy to history, & his legacy to a trash heap," The Hill reported.

Brennan's comments about the reported Fakhrizadeh assassination were described as "bizarre" by Senator Ted Cruz, who tweeted on Friday that the ex-CIA chief "consistently sides with Iranian zealots who chant 'Death to America.'"

The former CIA director fired back, tweeting that it was "typical" of Cruz to "mischaracterize" his comment.

"Your lawless attitude & simple-minded approach to serious national security matters demonstrate that you are unworthy to represent the good people of Texas," Brennan wrote.