Israel has openly acknowledged its military campaign targeting Iran’s nuclear program, which involved the assassination of at least 14 senior Iranian nuclear scientists.
According to Israeli officials, these individuals were directly involved in the creation and production of nuclear weapons.
Israel’s recent military campaign against Iran reportedly involved the targeted killings of at least 14 senior Iranian nuclear scientists — a move Israeli officials describe as a direct blow to the core of Tehran’s nuclear weapons programme.
According to Israel’s ambassador to France, Joshua Zarka, the operation aimed to dismantle Iran’s nuclear capabilities by eliminating key figures driving its development.
The disclosure, made in an interview with the Associated Press (AP), is being viewed as an unprecedented escalation in Israel’s efforts to halt Iran’s atomic ambitions.
Speaking to AP, Zarka said the scientists were targeted not for their knowledge alone but for their active roles: “They were killed not because of the fact that they knew physics, but because of the fight that they were personally involved in — the creation and the fabrication and the production of a nuclear weapon.”
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Zarka added, “The fact that the whole group disappeared is basically throwing back the program by a number of years.” He emphasized the psychological effect on potential future scientists in Iran: “People that will be asked to be part of a future nuclear weapon program in Iran will think twice about it.”
According to Israeli military officials cited by AP, nine of the 14 scientists were killed in the initial wave of Israeli strikes on June 13. The group reportedly included physicists, chemists, materials scientists, explosives experts, and engineers with decades of expertise in nuclear weapons development.
“They were killed not because of the fact that they knew physics, but because of the fight that they were personally involved in,” Zarka reiterated. “These individuals were critical to the production and future advancement of Iran’s nuclear weaponisation plans.”
He further distinguished between theoretical physics and practical weapons development: “It’s one thing to learn physics and to know how a nucleus works. These people had the know-how of doing it.”
However, analysts and nuclear experts warn that such knowledge cannot be completely erased. “Blueprints will be around,” said Mark Fitzpatrick of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “The next generation of Ph.D. students will figure it out eventually.”
European leaders also expressed concern, advocating for diplomatic, not military, solutions. UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy stated, “Strikes cannot destroy the knowledge Iran has acquired over several decades.”
Israel has a history of covert operations, including the 2020 killing of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, though it rarely acknowledges such acts publicly. Zarka hinted that repeated setbacks, many blamed on Israel, have delayed Iran’s nuclear ambitions: “They have not reached the bomb yet.”
Legal experts remain divided over whether such killings are permissible under international law. Some argue that scientists directly involved in hostilities may not be considered civilians. Others, like Laurie Blank of Emory Law School, caution that not all facts are available to assess legality.
Pavel Podvig, a Geneva-based nuclear analyst, raised broader concerns: “Once you start killing scientists, where do you stop? Students? This is a very slippery slope.”
TimesOfIndia
