Latest news with #NuclearScientists
Reuters
05-07-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Iran's Khamenei attends first public event since war with Israel
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attended a religious event on Saturday (July 5), according to a video carried by state television, after reports that he was in a "secure location" since the start of a 12-day air war with Israel in which top Iranian commanders and nuclear scientists were killed.
New York Times
28-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Iran Holds State Funeral for Military Commanders and Nuclear Scientists
Thousands of mourners thronged the streets of Iran's capital, Tehran, on Saturday at a funeral procession for about 60 people killed in the war with Israel, including some of the country's top military commanders and nuclear scientists. Live coverage by Iranian state television showed streets that were barren during the 12-day war now packed for the state funeral. Participants waved green, red and white Iranian flags, red banners with religious slogans or branches of white flowers. The often-heard public chants in the Islamic Republic, 'Death to America' and 'Death to Israel,' rang out as trucks with caskets in the back inched along the route between two of Tehran's main squares. From there, the caskets were expected to be transferred for burial at various cemeteries. Some of the deceased will be interred with their families. There was no sign of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but President Masoud Pezeshkian marched in the procession. The funeral was a reminder of the heavy toll Iran had paid not only in losses from the top echelon of its military forces, but also from its contentious nuclear program. Among more than 600 people killed in the Israeli attacks, 90 of them were military personnel, according to Iranian state television. The dead included at least 11 prominent nuclear scientists. The coffins were covered in a clear wrap over an Iranian flag and scattered with rose petals. One truck held the caskets of children, according to Press TV, a state media outlet. As the dead passed, mourners reached out to kiss or touch the coffins. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
BBC News
28-06-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Iran holds state funeral for military leaders killed in Israel conflict
A state funeral is taking place in Iran for around 60 people, including military commanders and nuclear scientists, killed during the 12-day conflict with draped in the Iranian flag, bearing portraits of deceased commanders were flanked by large crowds near Enghelab Square in central conflict ended with a ceasefire earlier this week, after the US became directly involved by bombing key nuclear sites in those being laid to rest is Mohammad Bagheri, the highest-ranking military officer in Iran who was chief of staff of Iran's armed forces. Huge crowds of mourners dressed in black chanted slogans, waved Iranian flags and held portraits of those killed. Saturday's funeral will also include Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, as well as a number of nuclear scientists such as Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, who was head of Azad University in Tehran. It comes after US President Donald Trump said he would "absolutely" consider bombing Iran to a question from the BBC's Nomia Iqbal at a White House press briefing on Friday, he said he would "without question" attack the country if intelligence concluded Iran could enrich uranium to concerning has also repeated his assertions that Iran was "decimated", writing: "Why would the so-called 'Supreme Leader' Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of the war-torn country of Iran, say so blatantly and foolishly that he won the war with Israel, when he knows his statement is a lie."Trump also claimed to have known "exactly where he [Khamenei] was sheltered", saying he "would not let Israel, or the US Armed Forces... terminate his life"."I saved him from a very ugly and ignominious death, and he does not have to say, 'thank-you, president Trump!'" Trump posted on his Truth Social foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, warned Trump against making "disrespectful" comments about Khamenei, who claimed US and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites had achieved "nothing significant"."If President Trump is genuine about wanting a deal, he should put aside the disrespectful and unacceptable tone towards Iran's Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei," Araghchi posted on X."The Great and Powerful Iranian People, who showed the world that the Israeli regime had no choice but to run to 'Daddy' to avoid being flattened by our Missiles, do not take kindly to Threats and Insults."Araghchi has admitted that "excessive and serious" damage was done to Iran's nuclear sites by the recent bombings.
South China Morning Post
26-06-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
China warned to watch for security threats as Israeli spies in Iran open ‘Pandora's box'
Israel's unprecedented success in infiltrating Iranian intelligence has opened up a 'Pandora's box' of global security threats, Chinese observers have warned, while urging China to tighten all national security measures against any vulnerabilities. According to Chinese military analyst and former air force member Fu Qianshao, one striking feature of the Middle East conflict is the critical role played by Israeli intelligence agents embedded in Iran. Israel's Mossad intelligence agency reportedly used spies and agents to smuggle armed drones and precision weapons into Iran in a prolonged operation, effectively creating a covert drone base within Iranian territory. When Israel launched its overnight strikes on June 13, these prepositioned assets helped to swiftly disable much of Iran's air defences and missile system. By the time Iran put together a response hours later, its ability to retaliate had been greatly diminished. The Israeli air strikes targeted key nuclear sites in Iran and killed at least four senior Iranian military commanders and six nuclear scientists. Fu said the tactic of having spies disable Iran's radars and ground-to-air missile systems, allowing Israeli fighter jets to enter Iranian airspace almost unchallenged, was 'a tactic belonging to a new form of warfare, and in many ways has opened a Pandora's box'.
Russia Today
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Israel's moral collapse: Strategy doesn't require dead children
The recent revelation that Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Sadati-Armaki was killed along with his entire family – his wife, two daughters, and son – in an Israeli airstrike should stop even hardened strategists in their tracks. This wasn't just a precision strike. It was an execution of a household. Sadati-Armaki was not a senior official. He was a mid-level scientist—an engineer working within Iran's nuclear framework. That role may have made him a target in the logic of modern conflict. But nothing, not even that logic, can justify killing his children in their own home. This wasn't an isolated incident. On June 13, at least five other nuclear scientists were killed in Israeli strikes across Tehran: Fereydoon Abbasi, Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, Abdolhamid Minouchehr, Ahmadreza Zolfaghari Daryani, and Seyed Amir Hossein Feghhi. Their credentials tied them to Iran's nuclear program. All had played some role, technical or administrative, in Iran's nuclear development. None were combatants. Most were academics. Some had already retired from state positions. Crucially, they weren't alone. In multiple reported cases, family members died alongside them. Wives. Daughters. The daughter of a senior official. These were not errant missiles landing in crowded urban spaces. These were targeted strikes on homes, in residential areas, at night, when families were together. This isn't the fog of war. It is its deliberate weaponization. The children didn't make enrichment policy. The spouses didn't oversee uranium labs. But they died because of proximity—because they were related to someone deemed dangerous. To call this 'collateral damage' is cowardice. When decision-makers approve a strike on a home, knowing who sleeps inside, the outcome is no longer an accident. It is a choice. Some argue that in an asymmetrical war, deterrence must be personal. But this is not deterrence—it's liquidation. It suggests that no civilian life adjacent to state infrastructure is worth preserving. It sends the message that not even scientists' families will be spared, as if moral limits are luxuries we can no longer afford. This is not a defense of Iran's nuclear posture. It is a defense of the basic principle that families—children—cannot be combatants. If we abandon that line, we are not winning anything. We are declaring that fear is stronger than law, that vengeance is smarter than diplomacy. Killing scientists' families doesn't dismantle programs. It doesn't prevent future threats. It only makes peace more remote and retaliation more likely. What we normalize now, others will imitate later. This is not strength. It is strategic and moral collapse. And if this is where warfare is headed, then everyone—regardless of nationality—should be deeply, urgently afraid.
