Israel kills at least 14 scientists behind Iran’s nuclear program

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Israel killed a high-profile Iranian scientist in an airstrike Tuesday morning in one of the last strikes on Iran after President Trump’s cease-fire went into effect.

Mohammad Reza Sedighi Saber, who the US State Department sanctioned last month for his role in Tehran’s nuclear program, is the latest of 14 top atomic experts who were assassinated by Israel after the Jewish state alleged they were “personally involved” in helping develop highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon.

Despite both Israel and Iran accused the other of breaking the deal that was announced by Trump on Monday night. 

Damaged residential building in Tehran after Israeli strikes.

Israel killed a high-profile Iranian scientist in an airstrike Tuesday morning, the latest among 14 slain top atomic experts who had been “personally involved” with Tehran’s nuclear program.  Anadolu via Getty Images

The fragile truce carried on later in the day after Trump blasted both sides and demanded the cease-fire hold. 

Trump specifically called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off further attacks against Iran — which had struck Israel with more than a dozen missiles after the midnight cease-fire took effect.

One of the strikes killed four people in the city of Beersheba. Among the casualties was an off-duty IDF soldier, his girlfriend, and his mother. 

Israel, however, retaliated with a smaller attack on Iran’s radar system, with Iran and Israeli officials choosing to back-off from further strikes. 

Both nations maintain that they will no longer attack the other unless they are attacked first, allowing the cease-fire to carry on as airspace restrictions were lifted in Israel, Iran and across the Middle East mid-Tuesday. 

Saber was the head of Iran’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research’s Shahid Karimi Group, which specifically worked on explosives-related projects, according to the Department of State. 

His work was directly “linked to projects including research and testing applicable to the development of nuclear explosive devices,” the department said. 

Iranian military officials reviewing a map of the Middle East.

Iranian military officials reviewing a map of the Middle East on June 23. AP

Israel appeared to be targeting Saber for more than a week, with a previous attack at his father-in-law’s home killing his 17-year-old son June 13, according to Iranian media. 

After Saber’s death, Joshua Zarka, Israel’s ambassador to France, touted that the Jewish state has now killed at least 14 of Iran’s atomic experts since the war with Tehran began.  

“The fact that the whole group disappeared is basically throwing back the program by a number of years, by quite a number of years,” Zarka told The Associated Press. 

Satellite image of the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility in Iran after US military strikes.

Zarka told AP that Israeli strikes killed at least 14 physicists and nuclear engineers, top Iranian scientific leaders. Planet Labs PBC/AFP via Getty Images

Nine of Iran’s nuclear scientists were killed during the initial wave of attacks, the Israeli military said. 

Zarka said the deaths, along with previous attacks that killed other Iranian nuclear scientists, should serve as a warning to the program’s successors. 

These people had the know-how of [making nukes] and were developing the know-how of doing it further. And this is why they were eliminated,” he said.


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“I do think that people that will be asked to be part of a future nuclear weapon program in Iran will think twice about it,” Zarka added. 

But experts said Iran has replaced its nuclear-program scientists in the past and will have no trouble doing it again, claiming that military force alone will never be enough to erase Iran’s nuclear know-how.   

Projectile trails in the night sky over Tehran, Iran.

In 2020, Iran blamed Israel for killing its top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, with a remote-controlled machine gun. Getty Images

“Strikes cannot destroy the knowledge Iran has acquired over several decades, nor any regime ambition to deploy that knowledge to build a nuclear weapon,” UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy told lawmakers in the House of Commons on Monday. 

Mark Fitzpatrick, a former US diplomat who specialized in nuclear non-proliferation, said Iran has all the blueprints it needs to prop up the next generation of scientists. 

“They have substitutes in maybe the next league down, and they’re not as highly qualified, but they will get the job done eventually,” he told the AP. 

Israeli officials touted that they have set back Iran’s nuclear program “by years,” but warned that the peace may only be temporary.

“We have concluded a significant chapter, but the campaign against Iran is not over,” IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said in a statement.