Govt spox says enemies aim to cause public disenchantment by terrorist attacks

Tehran, Dec 1, IRNA - Government spokesman Ali Rabiei said on Tuesday that the enemies aim to cause public disenchantment by terrorist attacks deploring assassination of prominent scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. The enemies were in vain to block the chink of hope for peace and create confusion in Iran's strategy, Ali Rabiei said at a press briefing on Tuesday. Fakhrizadeh- head of the Research and Innovation Organization of Iran's Ministry of Defense- was assassinated on November 27 when a car bomb exploded near his vehicle and an automatic machine gun opened fire on him afterwards, according to Iranian Defense Minister. Rabiei expressed condolence to Iran's scientific society, Iranian nation and the Supreme Leader on the great loss. The spokesman stressed that the terrorists cannot halt Iran's scientific achievements. Pointing to assassination of Fakhrizadeh, Rabiei said Iran reserves the right to retaliate appropriately. Asked about whether assassination of Fakhrizadeh has had any relationship with meeting with Yukiya Amano- the former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) who died in 2019, Rabiei said news about their meeting was a sheer lie. He said that Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) has officially made it clear that Fakhrizadeh never met the IAEA staff. He said that the secretariat of Supreme National Security Council initiated inquiry about the terrorist attack on Fakhrizadeh. Turning to the issue of pandemic, the spokesman said the country has seen downturn in number of the dead after the closure of some cities and imposing restrictions as preemptive measures. Reports show that many provinces are in better conditions compared with previous weeks, he added. Since its outbreak in Dec 2019, the coronavirus has killed over 1,470,000 worldwide . The number of the dead in Iran has passed 48,000.