Instant view: Killing of Iranian nuclear scientist
VIENNA |
VIENNA (Reuters) - An Iranian nuclear scientist was killed by a bomb placed on his car on Wednesday in an attack Tehran's deputy governor blamed on Israel.
Here are some comments from analysts and diplomats:
BRUNO TERTRAIS, SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW AT FRANCE'S STRATEGIC
RESEARCH FOUNDATION:
"People should not jump to conclusions too quickly. Everybody says it is the U.S. or it is Israel or it is both. But one should not exclude (the possibility) that some Iranian organizations themselves could be involved."
"It is probably demotivating or unnerving for Iranians working on the nuclear program."
"It certainly has a psychological effect on scientists working on the nuclear program."
EUROPEAN DIPLOMAT IN VIENNA:
"I presume that the mission is just simply to make life a bit more difficult, to make people a bit more reluctant to be part of the nuclear program."
"I don't see it as something that logically can stop the program."
MARK FITZPATRICK, DIRECTOR AT THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE
FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES:
"Even if the death was part of a campaign to set back Iran's nuclear ambitions by targeting top scientists, it wouldn't be in direct response to the Fordow announcement. Such operations have to be well-planned in advance. The timing is most likely coincidental."
MARK HIBBS AT CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE:
"That this victim was a scientist in Iran's enrichment program is unconfirmed, but if so it would appear that outside efforts to target Iran's nuclear personnel are continuing unabated. Whoever is doing this has to have serious intelligence assets on the ground in Iran, and it would appear from these repeated attacks on installations and people that the perpetrators have these."
GALA RIANI AT IHS GLOBAL INSIGHT:
"It's impossible to say who is behind the apparently carefully targeted attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists over the past couple of years, but Iranian perceptions will be that Israel, the U.S. and other Western states are behind the attacks, seeking as they are to sabotage the Iranian nuclear program."
"It's hard to say whether it could be in response to anything really - if it is being carried out by foreign intelligence services then more likely to be part of a longer-term agenda to derail and set back Iran's nuclear program as much as possible given that sanctions and diplomatic pressure have little effect on Iranian intentions - rather than a quick-reaction to the start of enrichment activities in Fordow."
(Reporting by Fredrik Dahl)
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Not even Russia had gone that far during the cold war. Neither had we — until now.
Yet our presidential candidates advocate that we “take out” more Iranian scientists, “all of it covertly, all of it deniable.”
Surprisingly, few people raised an eyebrow to this newly articulated expediency in international affairs.
Is no one concerned that the victims might have wives and children; mothers and fathers; sisters and brothers? Or that these scientists had committed no crime or terrorist act to justify us killing them?
To be sure, expediency has no moral code. Its only rule is to reach an end, by any means. Those who regularly resort to expediency must therefore regularly also compromise their moral compass — the very guide they will need to find their way out of the next storm. When that storm comes they could be morally bankrupt and at loss on what to do.
Still, they see no risk in being in this position. That’s fine.
We, however, are a God fearing nation, conceived out of a universal sense for fairness.
There is nothing fair or right about killing another nation’s scientists.
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