Israeli official: ‘I really have no clue’ who killed Iranian nuclear scientist

An Israeli official said on Saturday that he had “no clue” who killed Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

In an interview on N12’s “Meet the Press,” Israeli cabinet minister Tzachi Hanegbi said “I really have no clue who did it,” referring to the killing, according to Reuters.

“It’s not that my lips are sealed because I’m being responsible, I really have no clue,” he said. Hanegbi is a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Reuters notes. 

Fakrizadeh was shot and killed by “armed terrorist elements” while in a vehicle in the town of Absard and died in the hospital after doctors were unable to save him, according to state media.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani blamed Israel for the killing on Saturday, according to The Associated Press, and said the nation would “respond in proper time.”

The scientist was the top target of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service, which was widely acknowledged to have led the assassination of scientists, including some of Fakhrizadeh’s deputies.

While Iran repeatedly denied that it was developing a nuclear weapon, an Israeli mission uncovered Iranian documents mentioning Fakhrizadeh and describing “Project Amad,” the name of Iran’s previous nuclear weapons program, the New York Times reported.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that the country’s first priority was the “definitive punishment of the perpetrators and those who ordered it,” the AP reported.