It’s not in us to support terrorism of any kind. Terrorism is today the principal challenge to global peace. Since the past few decades, Islamist fundamentalists through the arms of Al Qaeda, ISIS, Pakistan’s ISI, and Afghanistan’s Taliban have created a world filled with violence in increasing frequency. The US, Russia and India are among the principal victims of such offensives engaged in by terrorist groups.
At the same time, the killing of Iran’s top-most nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh at the hands of terrorist groups must be seen from not one, but different angles. Terrorists were apparently commissioned to do a killing. The hands of Israel are suspected to be behind this act. US President Donald Trump might or might not have helped in this act in the context of the clouded US political weather after the presidential polls.
Israel is no ordinary nation. A tiny Jewish state sandwiched between hostile Muslim nations, it holds its head high by virtue of its razor-sharp intelligence outreach, good governance and major forays in fields as wide as science, technology and agriculture. Israeli intelligence networks are as lethal as the CIA, which had executed several deadly plans across the globe. The timing of the execution of the Iranian nuclear scientist in capital Tehran was such that it is suspected the CIA used the Israeli external intelligence Mossad for this purpose. Iran has vowed to avenge the murder, but it has no clear clues as yet about whether Israeli or the US was involved in this crime.
The assassination comes in the aftermath of Iran breaching the agreement on limiting the use of uranium, a central requirement for nuclear bomb-making, which it had signed with six major global powers including the US and the EU in 2015. Notably, president-elect Joe Biden has, during his election campaign, promised to revive the deal remaining dead for a year. Hence, many suspect that the killing of the nuclear scientist could be Trump’s parting kick to Biden. Trump had unilaterally withdrawn from the deal and imposed fresh sanctions on Iran to curb sale of its oil. Notably, two years ago, a top Iranian leader Major General Qassem Soleimani had been killed in a US air-strike. Put together, Iran could now be expected to extract revenge, and it is worth a serious watch how things could shape up in the West Asian region in the coming weeks or months.
Significantly, the present offensive against Iran from the West comes at a time when some Muslim nations like the oil-rich UAE are establishing formal diplomatic relations with Israel.