A shadowy figure, Mr. Fakhrizadeh had long been the No. 1 target of the Mossad, Israels intelligence service, which is widely believed to be behind a series of assassinations more than eight years ago that included some of Mr. Fakhrizadehs deputies.
Iran never agreed to demands from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear monitoring agency, to let their inspectors question Mr. Fakhrizadeh, saying he was an academic who lectured at the Imam Hussein University in downtown Tehran.
Mr. Fakhrizadeh was an academic, but a series of classified reports, notably a lengthy 2007 assessment done by the C.I.A. for the George W. Bush administration, said the academic role was a cover story. In 2008, his name was added to a list of Iranian officials whose assets were ordered frozen by the United States.
That same year, his activities were disclosed in an unclassified briefing by the I.A.E.A.s chief inspector. Later, it became clear that he ran what the Iranians called Projects 110 and 111 an effort to tackle the most difficult problems bomb designers face as they try to make a warhead small enough to fit atop a missile and make it survive the rigors of re-entry into the atmosphere.
Iran has always denied it was seeking a nuclear weapon, insisting its production of nuclear material was purely for peaceful purposes.read more
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh Live Updates: Iran’s Top Nuclear Scientist Killed
