Iranian nuclear scientist is ‘injured in attempted assassination near Tehran’ reports in Iran claim
- Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi was target of ‘terrorist operation’, reports claim
- In 2007, he was named as chairman of Field for the Expansion of Deployment of Advanced Technology (FEDAT)
- FEDAT was the cover for organisation behind Iran’s nuclear weapons programme
A nuclear scientist dubbed ‘father of the Iranian bomb’ has been injured in an assassination attempt, state-run media reports.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi – a professor of physics and former officer in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard – was the target of a ‘terrorist operation’ near Tehran, sources told state-controlled news agency IRIB.
Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi was previously named in UN sanctions resolutions because of his work on suspected nuclear weapons development.
In 2007, he was revealed to be the chairman of the Field for the Expansion of Deployment of Advanced Technology (FEDAT) in a leaked Iranian document.
The FEDAT was the cover name for the organisation behind Iran’s nuclear weapons programme.
The leaked document purported to show the country’s four-year plan to develop a uranium deuteride neutron initiator.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi – a nuclear scientist dubbed ‘father of the Iranian bomb’ – has been injured in an assassination attempt, state-run media reports
The reported assassination attempt has lead many to speculate that he is ‘Iran’s nuclear Qassem Soleimani’.
Soleimani, a major general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was assassinated in a US drone strike in January this year.
A spokesperson for the Atomic Energy Organization in Iran stressed that no accident had occurred and all scientists were safe and well.