Democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Saturday joined Tehran in lamenting the assassination of Iranian nuclear program scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, describing it as an illegal and provocative move designed to subvert diplomacy.
“The assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was reckless, provocative, and illegal. As a new administration takes power, it was clearly intended to undermine US-Iran diplomacy. We must not allow that to happen. Diplomacy, not murder, is the best path forward,” he said in a tweet.
As Breitbart News reported, Fakhrizadeh was assassinated near the capital city of Tehran after a fierce battle between unidentified assailants and his security team.
Fakhrizadeh was described as the “father of the Iranian bomb” in a famous 2018 presentation by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The semi-offical Iran Tasnim news agency agreed with Sanders, citing a New York Times report alleging Israel was behind the assassination, citing three U.S. officials.
“One American official — along with two other intelligence officials — said that Israel was behind the attack on the scientist,” the paper said.
“It was unclear how much the United States may have known about the operation in advance, but the two nations are the closest of allies and have long shared intelligence regarding Iran,” it added.
CNN host Fareed Zakaria stated the assassination was designed to make things harder for Joe Biden.
He said Friday that by carrying it out now, the Israelis “force Iran’s hand, make it raise tensions in the Middle East, and either Iran will retaliate, or whether it doesn’t, it raises the tensions enough that Joe Biden faces a problem.”
Meanwhile Iran’s Major General Hossein Salami said he felt a firm response growing to the killing, warning Iran will always “push back” hard against aggressors.
“The enemies of the Iranian nation, especially the masterminds, perpetrators and supporters of this crime should know such crimes will not undermine Iranians’ determination and will to continue this dignified path, and tough revenge and punishment for them have been put on the agenda,” said a clearly distressed Salami, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).
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