THE assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on Nov 27 near the resort town of Absard, some 56km east of Teheran as reported by Iran's Fars News Agency, raises the issue of extra-judicial killings on an extra-territorial basis with far-reaching ramifications.
All eyes are on Israel as the mastermind and main culprit behind this dastardly act, which not only violates national sovereignty, but breaches international law. There have been conflicting accounts of how the assassination was carried out.
UPI said Fakhrizadeh was killed when a suicide attacker confronted him and his bodyguard. But Iranian state television, as quoted by Sky News in the United Kingdom, reported that a truck with explosives blew up near a car that was carrying the top nuclear scientist.
The final official narrative by Iran's Supreme National Security Council is that Fakhrizadeh was killed by a satellite-based remote-controlled weapon. The Mossad, Israel's spy agency, has been named as the usual suspect.
Israel can't and shouldn't escape responsibility or culpability since the country has a history and track record of carrying out unilateral and rogue acts against the international community, not least with the United States as its principal sponsor.
A string of killings dating back to 2010 has seen the deaths of Iranian nuclear scientists based on an established pattern, whereby explosives would be attached to the victims' car by assassins on motorcycles. All the killings were reportedly traced back to Israeli planning and involvement.
The hall of Iranian nuclear science luminaries that were killed in this manner included Massoud Ali Mohammadi (2010), Majid Shahriari (2011) and Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan (2012).
It's indisputable that the one and only country that will openly benefit from the deaths of Iranian nuclear scientists is Israel.
And Israel has had a history of other extra-judicial acts. With such history, it's high time that the international community stand up to Israel and demand for a complete and final cessation of its rogue behaviour abroad.
The US, under the administration of President-elect Joe Biden, should provide the fullest cooperation by handing over evidence of Israel's involvement in extra-judicial acts focusing on assassinations over three decades or more, if relevant, to a United Nations taskforce or committee set up to investigate such contraventions.
The end result is to secure a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel and putting pressure on the country to permanently desist from such acts.
A Biden administration is well-poised to demonstrate a firm and sustained commitment to multilateralism as opposed to the immature unilateralism under President Donald Trump, which gives a carte blanche to Israel to do whatever it pleases, besides providing strong moral and ideological backing.
Surely extra-judicial killings are simply not justifiable at all, legally and morally. At the same time, the international community should work with like-minded Israelis to pursue, build and develop a case — both on the basis of judicial review as well as law of tort — against extra-judicial killings on an extra-territorial basis before the Supreme Court of Israel, which has never been embarked upon before.
The purpose is to obtain a constitutional and legal ruling against the government, principally Israel's prime minister, Defence minister, foreign affairs minister and the Mossad.
If Israel really feels threatened by the nuclear ambitions of Iran, why not reach out to the country even if ever so covertly?
And keep working with the US and the International Nuclear Energy Agency (IAEA) to ensure that Iran doesn't transform its nuclear programme, which it has declared is purely for civilian use, into a destructive purpose.
In 2018 and last year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed to have presented evidence on the existence of nuclear facilities in Iran for the purpose of experimenting and developing nuclear bombs.
It's noteworthy, however, that the IAEA had responded by reaffirming its 2015 assessment that there was no such evidence of Iran carrying out any activity related to the development of nuclear weapons after 2009.
It's highly regrettable that extra-judicial killings have happened yet again. Iran must be pro-active in compiling all proof and prosecute its case before the court of the international community — across the full spectrum of legal, diplomatic and political forums.
The writer is head of social, law and human rights at EMIR Research, an independent think tank focused on strategic policy recommendations based on rigorous research