Daijiworld Media Network –Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv, Jun 18: The recent Israeli missile strike on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure has reignited deep geopolitical tensions — and reopened the wounds of a covert war that has spanned decades. Among the latest casualties is Fereidoun Abbasi, a prominent physicist and former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, whose death has once again brought Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran's most secretive and high-ranking nuclear scientist, into international focus.
Abbasi, once targeted in a failed assassination attempt in 2010, had famously downplayed fears of being silenced. His defiant stance, including public statements claiming he would "gladly build nuclear weapons if asked," made him both a revered figure in Iranian nationalist circles and a high-value target for Israel and its allies. This time, the missiles succeeded where motorbike bombs once failed.
Yet, it is the ghost of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh that looms largest in Iran's nuclear narrative. Dubbed Iran’s Oppenheimer — a reference to J. Robert Oppenheimer, the architect of the American atomic bomb — Fakhrizadeh was an enigma. For years, he existed only in intelligence files, with no public appearances, photographs, or acknowledgements from Iranian authorities.
Western intelligence agencies claimed Fakhrizadeh spearheaded Project Amad, a clandestine initiative in the early 2000s to build a nuclear weapon — a charge Iran has consistently denied. His importance became starkly clear in 2018, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu theatrically unveiled a trove of Iranian nuclear documents and pointed to Fakhrizadeh by name on national television. “Remember that name,” Netanyahu warned.
Fakhrizadeh was eventually assassinated in November 2020 in what Iranian officials called a “remote-controlled ambush” allegedly orchestrated by Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency. The high-tech hit used AI-guided weaponry and has since been the subject of widespread speculation, documentaries, and denials.
His death sent shockwaves through Iran's security establishment. For the Islamic Republic, it was not just the loss of a scientist but a symbolic breach of its sovereign pride and scientific capability.
The killing of Abbasi in the latest strike raises fears that the shadow war between Iran and Israel is entering a new, more dangerous phase. Security experts warn that the conflict is no longer just about uranium enrichment or centrifuge installations — it is now targeting the minds behind the machines.
Iranian media and political commentators have drawn parallels between Abbasi and Fakhrizadeh, calling both men “martyrs of scientific resistance”, and vowing retaliation.
Meanwhile, Israel has maintained its decades-long policy of strategic ambiguity, neither confirming nor denying involvement in such operations — even as its intelligence footprint in the region becomes increasingly bold and surgical.
Despite his death nearly five years ago, Fakhrizadeh’s name continues to haunt the Middle East. With the revival of nuclear tensions and potential unraveling of the fragile diplomatic fabric woven by the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA), his once-classified role is now part of public discourse.
In the words of a senior Iranian official quoted in Tehran Times, “Fakhrizadeh is gone, but the path he carved cannot be erased by missiles or assassins.”
As the regional power struggle intensifies, the legacies of Iran’s slain nuclear masterminds remain etched in a volatile history — shadowy yet central to the future of Middle Eastern geopolitics.