An Assassination in Iran
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 2 December 2020
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The top Iranian nuclear scientist has been killed, apparently in an Israeli strike. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who has long been the mastermind of the Iranian nuclear program, was gunned down in an attack with a remote control machine gun. Iranian reprisals are expected, although their timing and nature is not clear. It also puts the incoming Biden administration, which is looking to bring back the Iran nuclear deal, in a bit of a pickle.
To chew it all over, Benjamin Wittes sat down with Scott R. Anderson, international law specialist and Lawfare senior editor; Suzanne Maloney, the vice president and director of the Foreign Policy Program at the Brookings Institution and an Iran scholar; and Natan Sachs, director of the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings where he focuses on Israeli policy. They talked about why the Israelis would conduct this operation, how effective its killing of Iranian nuclear scientists has been, whether any of it is legal and what it means for the future of U.S.-Iran relations.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
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| 0:14.7 | That's patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:18.2 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:34.0 | You have a bundle of facts here, but none of it really amounts up to, and nobody's really |
| 0:38.0 | openly asserted of the parties that this amounts to an actual armed conflict. |
| 0:42.2 | Even if it did, even if that were the case, this was a hot war, you would have a hard argument |
| 0:47.6 | on when the facts known to us about this individual that he'd qualify, because he is by most |
| 0:51.4 | appearance and by all appearances civilian. |
| 0:54.7 | I'm Benjamin Widis and this is the LawFair podcast December 2nd, 2020. |
| 1:01.1 | The top Iranian nuclear scientist has been killed, apparently in an Israeli strike. |
| 1:08.0 | Mosin Fakhrizada, who has long been the mastermind of the Iranian nuclear program, was gunned |
| 1:14.8 | down if you believe the news reports in an attack with a remote control machine gun. |
| 1:22.3 | Iranian reprisals are expected, although their timing in nature is not clear. |
| 1:29.1 | It also puts the incoming Biden administration, which is looking to bring back the Iran nuclear |
| 1:35.1 | deal in a bit of a pickle. |
| 1:37.8 | To chew it all over, I was joined in the virtual jungle studio by Scott Anderson, international |
| 1:44.6 | law specialist and LawFair senior editor, Suzanne Maloney, the vice president and director |
| 1:50.8 | of the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution and an Iran scholar. |
| 1:56.7 | And Natan Sacks, director of the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings, where he |
| 2:02.3 | focuses on Israeli policy. |
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