On a parting gesture – Yossi Melman in Haaretz:

‘The killing of Prof. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh has dealt a blow to the morale, psyche and work of the Iranian regime headed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei – and especially to the Revolutionary Guards and the masters of the country’s nuclear program.
Fakhrizadeh was a physics professor at Imam Hossein University in Tehran but also held key positions in the Islamic Republic’s military nuclear program, which has been operating secretly for over 20 years behind the facade of the civilian uranium enrichment program.
The program is the responsibility of the Revolutionary Guards, in which Fakhrizadeh held the rank of brigadier general. More than a decade ago, when the International Atomic Energy Agency began to gradually expose Iran’s violations and military program, helped by the intelligence agencies of Israel, the United States and other Western countries, the watchdog’s inspectors asked to visit Tehran and question Fakhrizadeh.
The regime refused and sheltered its senior scientist. Later reports claimed that there had been an attempt on his life, attributed to the Mossad. According to foreign media, between 2008 and 2012 the Mossad took part in the assassination of five Iranian nuclear scientists.’

(…)

‘The details of the assassination remain unclear. Some news sites say a suicide bomber blew up the car in which Fakhrizadeh was riding and a gun-battle ensued in which some people, including his bodyguards, were wounded. The latest reports claim that the scientist was killed by gunmen on motorcycles.
In the past, Iranian nuclear scientists in Tehran have indeed been killed by point-blank shots from gunmen on motorcycles, or by bombs affixed to the scientists' cars.’

(…)

‘The messages from Netanyahu and Trump could be interpreted as warmongering against the backdrop of Trump losing the presidential election this month, and as a deliberate attempt to exacerbate the situation, which is already extremely tense amid reports that Trump has considered bombing Iran as a parting gesture before he leaves the White House. In an official statement Friday, the Revolutionary Guards promised that “as in the past,” they will revenge the killing of their scientist-general.’

Read the article here.

The killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh dealt a blow to the psyche of the Iranian, but almost nobody believes that this killing will really mean a setback to the Iranian nuclear program.

‘The former director of the C.I.A. under Mr. Obama, John Brennan, called the killing “a criminal act & highly reckless” in a tweet. “It risks lethal retaliation & a new round of regional conflict.’’’

See here.

So we can be pretty sure that the Biden-team is not very happy with this assassination.

Israel was fairly careful not to cross any sensitive borders wish Hezbollah, in order not to provoke another Lebanon war.

Hezbollah might very well be so weakened that Iran and Hezbollah will conclude that the killing of this scientist doesn’t count as a reason to go to war.

Even then, the question remains what was the rationale behind this killing, besides showing that Israeli agents can act with impunity in Iran?

And given the fact that Netanyahu and Pompeo visited Saudi-Arabia recently we might conclude that Saudi-Arabia was in the know and fairly happy with this assassination, as are Pompeo and Trump.

Paul-Anton Krüger warns in the German daily The Süddeutsche for another war in the Middle-East.

Iran has been fairly cautious and its latest act of revenge was merely a symbolic rocket attack.

Perhaps targeted killings of scientists is not yet crossing a red line.