Middle East

The Iran crisis

30/11/2020

Iran tells MBZ it will hit UAE in response to a US attack

Threat given to Mohammed bin Zayed directly, hours before Emirati statement condemning assassination of nuclear scientist
30 November 2020
Tehran “directly” contacted Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed last weekend, threatening the United Arab Emirates in the event of any US attack on Iran, a top-level UAE source told Middle East Eye.
The Iranians are on high alert following the assassination on Friday of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the architect of Iran’s military nuclear programme, east of Tehran.
Though Fakhrizadeh’s killing has been claimed off the record by Israeli intelligence sources to the New York Times, Iran has feared attacks by the United States too, believing outgoing president Donald Trump could lash out before his term ends on 20 January.
Read more at https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iran-uae-mbz-us-attack-hit-response

Iran Says It Won’t Fall Into Trap of Sabotaging US Talks

Iran wants to avoid provoking tensions with the US in the wake of the assassination of one of its top scientists
Posted on November 29, 2020
tegories ag
All eyes are on Iran to see how they respond to the killing of one of their top scientists. The attack is widely believed to have been carried out by Israel to sabotage a future Biden administration’s efforts to return to diplomacy with Iran. Iranian officials are making it clear that they do not intend to fall into the trap.
“Iran’s scientific and defense policies won’t change because of the assassination of one scientist or general,” Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei said in a statement on Sunday. Iran “shouldn’t fall into the trap of linking the assassination to past nuclear negotiations,” he said.
Read more at https://news.antiwar.com/2020/11/29/iran-says-it-wont-fall-into-trap-of-sabotaging-us-talks/

Iran’s supreme leader calls for ‘definitive punishment’ of scientist’s killers

By Oliver Holmes and Patrick Wintour
Sat 28 Nov 2020
Iran’s supreme leader has called for the “definitive punishment” of those behind the killing of one of the country’s most senior scientists, who was identified by Israel as having headed a secret nuclear weapons programme.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the architect of Tehran’s nuclear strategy, was killed on Friday on a highway near the capital in a carefully planned assassination that has led to a serious escalation of tensions in the Middle East.
Iran accused its arch-enemy, Israel, of carrying out the attack. Expecting retaliation, Israel put its global embassies on high alert on Saturday, Hebrew-language media reported.
Read more at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/28/iran-president-blames-israel-for-scientist-killing-and-vows-nuclear-progress-will-continue

How will Iran answer the assassination of Fakhri Zadeh?

By Elijah J. Magnier
Nov. 29, 2020
US President Donald Trump and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided that Iran was their worst enemy and that its nuclear and missile programs should be disrupted or destroyed by all means. Perhaps Trump considers Iran to be one of the reasons for his failure to be re-elected- or is it a “non-mission accomplished” to see Iran increasing its nuclear enrichment and developing its ballistic missile programs? There is little doubt that Trump wanted to add these two “achievements” to the list of gifts he offered to Israel: the Syrian-occupied Golan Heights, the Palestinian Capital of Jerusalem, the illegal reconstruction of settlements and the normalisation of relations of Arab and Muslim countries with Israel. Hence Trump’s motive for dragging Iran into a war or at least making sure he burns the ground under the JCPOA were the President-elect to attempt to reinstall it after the 20^th of January 2021. The assassination of the Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhri Zadeh was not explicitly, but only implicitly, announced by Netanyahu. What are Iran’s options? Who supported Israel in this assassination? How did Netanyahu drag Saudi Arabia onto Iran’s target list? On which platform is the next battlefield expected to be?
Read more at https://ejmagnier.com/2020/11/29/how-will-iran-answer-the-assassination-of-fakhri-zadeh/