Iran Lays To Rest Assassinated Nuclear Scientist As It Ponders Response
A handout picture provided by Iran’s Defence Ministry on November 29, 2020 shows mourners praying by the coffin of Iran’s assassinated top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh during his funeral procession at Fatima Masumeh’s Shrine in Qom, south of Tehran. IRANIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY / AFP Iran was on Monday laying to rest one of its top nuclear scientists, as the Islamic republic weighed how and when to retaliate for an assassination pinned on arch-foe Israel. The killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh — whom Israel has dubbed the “father” of Iran’s nuclear weapons programme — has once more heightened tensions between Tehran and its foes, with President Hassan Rouhani accusing the Jewish state of acting as Washington’s “mercenary”. Fakhrizadeh died on Friday after being seriously wounded when assailants targeted his car and engaged in a gunfight with his bodyguards outside Tehran, according to Iran’s defence ministry. The funeral got underway with a religious singer alluding t...