Iran says it has identified suspects in Fakhrizadeh assassination

Iran has successfully identified those responsible for the assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a spokesperson of the government of Iran, Ali Rabiei, said on Wednesday according to Israel Hayom. According to the paper, the Tasnim News Agency quoted Rabiei from an interview he gave to the official Iranian state TV, during which he mentioned that “different aspects of the assassination” are being investigated by Iran’s security establishment.  “When the investigation reaches its final stages, a formal comment will be provided by the relevant parties. As mentioned by the supreme leader, the most important thing is that our information wasn’t compromised,” Rabiei was quoted as saying. “We will continue to improve and increase our technological capabilities,” he added.Rabiei’s remarks confirmed previous reports of Iran identifying the perpetrators, reports that were mostly ignored by officials in the West, and had not been previously confirmed by Iranian officials.Rabiei also discussed Iran’s efforts to limit the spread of coronavirus in the country, and voiced support for the strict restrictions recently imposed following a spike in morbidity rates in Iran. In October, Alireza Zali, head of the Tehran coronavirus taskforce, suggested that police could be more strict with people who violate the restrictions, noting that “in the latest opinion poll we had, citizens asked us to deal decisively with offenders.”Rabiei stressed:  “We’ve seen a certain decrease [in morbidity rates] thanks to the isolation measures that we implemented, but we cannot say that the situation is even close to being normal.”

With his focusing on the coronavirus pandemic and relatively muted comments on the assassination, Rabiei’s latest remarks may indicate a certain shift in Iran’s current agenda. His words may be a message to certain groups in Iran not to expect an immediate response to the assassination.On Monday, a senior Iranian official said that an Iranian opposition group was suspected of carrying out the assassination alongside Israel. Iranian media noted that the weapon used in the operation was Israeli-made, but the official’s remarks mentioned the possible involvement of the ‘Monafeghin’ group, referring to the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a bloc of opposition groups in exile seeking to end the Shi’ite Muslim clerical rule. Source