Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Baqeri said the decision regarding the time and place to avenge for the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, one of the country’s top nuclear scientists, lies at the hands of the Iranian forces.
Baqeri made the remarks on Thursday during a ceremony, marking the 40th day of the martyrdom of Fakhrizadeh who was assassinated in a coordinated terrorist operation linked to the Zionist regime in Israel, Press TV reported.
“Both the criminal US and the child-killer Zionists were extremely angry and furious with the martyr and were chasing him,” he said, referring to Fakhrizadeh, who was targeted in a multi-pronged terrorist attack near Tehran on November 27.
Baqeri highlighted the scientist’s achievements in the field of defense research against unconventional weapons, the production of X-ray systems to counter smuggling, and the development of coronavirus testing kit and vaccines.
The military commander further hailed the formation of the Iranian Defense Ministry’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND) as an incredibly valuable work by martyr Fakhrizadeh.
The Zionists carried out assassination operations in Egypt, Iraq and Iran since the very day when Muslim countries made headways in nuclear physics, the commander said, adding that the US, likewise, killed hundreds of Iraqi scientists through Blackwater and other notorious mercenary contractors.
“According to statements by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, we have two tasks. One is to punish those who ordered and perpetrated this crime. It is underway and the time, place and manner to act upon it lie at the hands of the fighters,” Baqeri emphasized.
“Revenge is definite, but the time and place will be determined by the revolutionary front,” Baqeri stressed.
He further compared the assassination of Fakhrizadeh with that of top Iranian anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, saying they were martyred upon direct orders by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump.
General Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and his Iraqi trenchmate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Units, were assassinated along with their companions in a US terror drone strike near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.
Speaking in the city of Kerman on Wednesday, IRGC Quds Force Commander Brigadier General Esmaeil Qa’ani said the revenge for Soleimani’s assassination began with glorious funeral processions that served as the first slap in the face of the enemy.
The second slap was Iran’s missile strike on the American Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq, he added. “The next slap in the face of the United States is the withdrawal of the arrogance from the region,” Baqeri said.
“You are no longer at peace in your own homes, and it is not unlikely that we will take revenge from inside your house,” General Qa’ani warned. “They cannot assassinate our hero and live in comfort afterwards.”