Overview

• Israel’s June 13 airstrike killed Fereidoun Abbasi, former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, marking a high-profile casualty among Tehran’s nuclear scientists.
• Abbasi’s death has revived global attention on the November 2020 assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran’s top nuclear scientist.
• The 2020 operation attributed to Mossad used a remote-controlled, AI-powered machine gun smuggled into Iran and linked via satellite for facial recognition targeting.
• Fakhrizadeh’s killing derailed diplomatic negotiations, accelerated Iran’s uranium enrichment and bolstered hardliner influence within the regime.
• The recent strike underscores the intensifying covert conflict between Iran and Israel and the evolving role of advanced technology in targeted killings.