A top nuclear scientist of Iran, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, known as the father of the Iranian nuclear programme was gunned down on the street in a town near Tehran. In the town of Absard, 70 kn east of Tehran, four attackers opened fire at the scientist after an explosion. The bodyguard of the scientist was also wounded. This attack by unknown assailants come around ten months after the killing of Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian Major General, near the Baghdad international airport, in a drone strike sanctioned by Trump administration.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, led Iran’s military nuclear programme, as alleged by Israel, which was ultimately dismantled in the early 2000s. Iranian Defence minister, Brigadier General Amir Hatami expressed over Twitter that the attack and the assassination display ‘the depth of the enemies’ hatred’ towards the Islamic republic of Iran. Keeping in mind his importance, no photo of him was published till April 2018. Secrecy and security around him was increased recently in order to shield him from Israel, with which Iran has historically sour relations. This was probably due to Israel following Begin doctrine which guides that any preventive strike can be taken to dismantle any efforts by any of Israel’s neighbours or extended neighbours to develop WMDs that can pose threat. An example of the implementation of Begin doctrine was Operation Opera, a bombing carried out in early June, 1981, southeast of Baghdad, Iraq over a nuclear site that was under construction.

Israel, having been earlier suspected of killing some Iranian Nuclear scientists around 10 years ago, has declined to comment on the killing of Fakhrizadeh. In a public presentation in 2018, Israeli PM, Benjamin Netayahu had identified the scientist as the director of Iran’s nuclear weapons project and he had asserted infront of the audience- to remember the name, pointing to Fakhrizadeh.

There are reports about confusion in the Iranian Media and on tension in the region that the secret service of Israel might have been given green signal to strike Iranian nuclear scientists before Trump steps down.  It must be noted that the scientist was on a US sanctions list and was known for his secrecy.  The Iranian Newspaper Kayhan had asserted that Iran should go for an aggressive retaliatory strike against Israel causing not only destruction of facilities, but also heavy human casualties.

Iran has been a problematic ground for US- led western world, as its structure and polity of using religion (Sharia law) to guide the national policy defies the notion of the Westphalian model of sovereignty. The west-Iran relation has got complicated after the withdrawal of the US from the Iranian Nuclear deal- the JCPOA, under Trump. This assassination comes at a moment when the incoming US president Biden has stated that, he wants the US to re-enter into the Iranian nuclear deal. This attack by unknown assailants killing the scientist can make the Middle Eastern theatre challenging for incoming Biden administration.

It has been observed that after the initial support to US against the Taliban, when the US-led forces invaded Afghanistan (after 9/11) under Taliban rule, gradually Iran had grown uncomfortable with the talks between the western powers and the Taliban. Iran has felt threatened by the Taliban on its eastern border. Iran at one point of time had supplied weapons to Taliban to make a statement to the west about its defiance.  Even, the Taliban had setup a command centre under the protection of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran, in Mashhad (Iran) for coordination of its military in western Afghanistan. IRGC had been known to provide financial and other support to the Taliban to the chagrin of the west. Soleimani who was killed earlier this year in a drone strike was the commander of Quds, one of the five wings of the IRGC. The current peace and diplomatic accords between Israel and UAE could also have been a discomfort for Iran, while the accord (Israel-UAE) along with the peace-process in Afghanistan were definitely factors of relief for the west, specifically the US.

This killing of the nuclear scientist in Iran looks like a step to disarm Iran and to make the region more volatile for any world power that wants to pursue a more or less stable Iran with the gradually settling down Afghanistan. This effectively increased the relative gains of Israel in the middle-east theatre vis-à-vis Iran. The assassination of Fakhrizadeh can complicate the relations between Iran and the western-aligned Middle East countries  & also pose a challenge to the incoming President in terms of Middle East policy.