The assassination of Iran's top nuclear scientist
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 4 December 2020
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When news broke of the assassination of the head of Iran’s nuclear programme the details suggested an operation straight out of an action film. The Iranian government’s story however was very different and involved remote controlled weapons. Yet, the question remained: who was behind the operation and what does it mean for Middle Eastern politics?
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Guests:
Anshel Pfeffer, Times Israel correspondent.
Holly Dagres, non-resident fellow at the Washington based think tank, the Atlantic council.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Clips used: BBC, Channel 4, CNN, France 24, MSNBC, Sky.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | May I have your attention please you can now book your train tickets on Uber and get |
| 0:08.0 | 10% back in credits to spend on your next Uber ride so you don't have to walk home in the brain again. |
| 0:16.5 | Trains now on Uber. T's and C's apply. Check the Uber app. On a quiet highway out of the Iranian capital, surrounded by mountains and a wide open road, |
| 0:37.0 | a car carrying one of the most important men in Iran was ambushed last Friday. The passenger killed in a hail of bullets. |
| 0:47.0 | He had been driving to his country home when there was a loud noise, maybe an explosion, and he had gotten out of his car and it was then that the assassination took place. |
| 1:00.0 | Was it a band of assassins, Israeli infiltrators, or a remote controlled machine gun? |
| 1:08.0 | The narratives differ, but the outcome is the same. |
| 1:12.4 | Moosun-Fakrizade, the father of Iran's nuclear program is dead. |
| 1:17.0 | He seemed to have been a man very much at the center of all of Iran's nuclear efforts and he also had apparently a very high rank in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Court. |
| 1:34.3 | In a plot, straight out of a spy novel, who killed him and why? |
| 1:41.0 | How will Iran respond? And what does this mean for the Middle East's delicate power |
| 1:45.6 | balance? You're listening to stories of our times from the Times and Sunday |
| 1:51.0 | times. I'm Man Manvin Rana. Today the killing of Mosin-Fachrazade. On Friday afternoon news broke of the death of a top-ranking Iranian official. |
| 2:07.0 | Iranian state media are saying one of the country's top nuclear scientists has been assassinated. |
| 2:13.6 | He was on a family vacation in the north of Iran. |
| 2:16.9 | A reporter at the scene said explosives were hidden |
| 2:20.0 | beneath a pile of logs in a pickup truck. |
| 2:22.5 | Initial reports described an attack that included gunmen, an explosion and a hail of bullets. |
| 2:29.4 | Only the attackers or a attacker shot was left peppered with bullet holes. Attempts to save his life in hospital |
| 2:36.6 | failed. But the details were quickly dismissed as different narratives began to emerge out of Iran. |
| 2:45.0 | The news was initially that Muslim factories had been involved in an incident. |
| 2:51.0 | Holly Digris is an Iranian American and she's a fellow at the International Affairs Think Tank, the Atlantic |
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