Iran’s president blames Israel for killing nuclear scientist in bid to spark conflict

IRAN’S President Hassan Rouhani claimed that Israel was behind the killing of a scientist who founded the Islamic Republic’s military nuclear programme in the 2000s, in an effort to start a war in the last days of President Donald Trump’s administration.

Mr Rouhani’s comments in a news conference marked the first time he has directly accused the Jewish state of carrying out the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh late last month.

Israel, long suspected of killing Iranian nuclear scientists over the last decade, has repeatedly declined to comment on the attack.

“Waging instability and war in the final days of the Trump administration was the main aim of the Zionist regime in the assassination,” Mr Rouhani said.

Mr Rouhani vowed to avenge the killing but said his country will not allow Israel to decide the “time or venue” of any retaliatory action.

Mr Fakhrizadeh headed Iran’s so-called Amad programme, which Israel and the West have alleged was a military operation looking at the feasibility of building a nuclear weapon.

The International Atomic Energy Agency says that “structured programme” ended in 2003. US intelligence agencies concurred in a 2007 report.

After the killing of Mr Fakhrizadeh, a top Iranian security official, Ali Shamkhani, accused Israel of using “electronic devices” to remotely kill the scientist.

Israel insists Iran still maintains the ambition of developing nuclear weapons. Iran has maintained that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.