The report, which includes images and a video that appears to have been filmed in Israel, shows a bouquet in a clay vase placed inside a car said to belong to the Israeli scientist. The Iranian regime-affiliated news agency Fars News even published what it claimed was the scientist's name.

Attached to the bouquet was a note stating: "Yesterday, you received our bouquet. A harmless object, at first glance. But you noticed its weight, didn't you?"

Israeli authorities have yet to issue an official response.

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The Nov. 27 assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the head of Iran's military nuclear program at the time, involved an artificial intelligence-assisted remote-control weapon, the New York Times claimed Saturday.

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In a comprehensive piece reviewing the hit on Fakhrizadeh, dubbed "the father of the Iranian nuclear bomb," the daily claiming that Israel was behind his death. The report further alleged that Israel had wanted to eliminate the scientist for 14 years, and had planned to do so in 2009 in Tehran, but the Mossad intelligence agency called off the operation at the last moment because its "plot had been compromised."

While the Islamic republic has accused Israel – long suspected of killing several Iranian nuclear scientists a decade ago – of having a hand in Fakhrizadeh's elimination. Jerusalem has remained mum on the issue.

According to the NYT, in July 2020, the Mossad allegedly carried out its mission using a sniper machine gun that was operated by an agent from more than 1,000 miles away. Fakhrizadeh and his wife were driving in a car outside Tehran, along with a team of armed guards in escort cars, when the scientist was assassinated using a "killer robot."

The entire operation was conducted by remote control, according to the New York Times, and the hit squad that had planned the attack had already left Iran by the time the robot was activated.

According to the newspaper, the straight-out-of-science fiction plot was confirmed by senior Israeli, Iranian and American officials, "including two intelligence officials familiar with the details of the planning and execution of the operation, and statements Mr. Fakhrizadeh's family made to the Iranian news media."

The New York Times attributed the success of the assassination to "extensive planning and surveillance by the Mossad." It also accused Iran's Revolutionary Guards for security failures and even criticized Fakhrizadeh for refusing to take proper measures to protect himself from being assassinated.

According to the paper, Fakhrizadeh's elimination was "the debut test" of a computerized, artificial inteligence-assisted sharpshooter that has multiple-camera eyes and is operated via satellite and capable of firing 600 rounds a minute, a weapon that is "likely to reshape the worlds of security and espionage."

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Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed on Saturday that Israeli agents have infiltrated his country's counterintelligence services, particularly the department tasked with foiling Israeli espionage. Ahmadinejad even alleged that officials within Iran's intelligence agencies sought to cover the tracks of the assassins of Iranian nuclear scientists, including the head of the Islamic republic's nuclear program, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

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Speaking to a local media outlet, the former Iranian president, who was recently disqualified from running for re-election in Iran's upcoming presidential election on Friday, alleged that "a massive Israeli operation used a corrupt gang of security personnel in the upper echelons of the national intelligence apparatus."

The head of this "gang," Ahmadinejad said, was the head of the Israel department in the Iranian intelligence service, although he did not reveal the individual's name or the years in which he served in that capacity.

"This corrupt gang needs to reveal its crimes and answer for its part in the assassination of our nuclear scientists and the explosions at the Natanz nuclear facility," Ahmadinejad continued. "They stole important documents from the Turquzabad district near the capital Tehran, and from our intelligence [services]," he said, referring to what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a "secret atomic warehouse" showing traces of uranium.

The accusations were unprecedented in their severity from such a prominent Iranian figure.

"They [the alleged collaborators] perpetrated a very significant act in Turquzabad. They handed over several vehicles filled with documents to Israel. We're not talking about one piece of paper. There were several cars there full of documents. How did they manage to get through all the roadblocks in the country?" the former president asked.

"This corrupt gang in [our own] intelligence agencies concealed this information from the public. We discovered the operation only after our enemies chose to reveal its existence to the world," Ahmadinejad said, referring to Netanyahu's public address.

"The corrupt gang even hid the information from our intelligence minister and fed him lies and disinformation. They even told him that common thieves entered the building and has been arrested," Ahmadinejad added.

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It has been 40 years since Israel bombed the nuclear reactor in Iraq. Even the most optimistic of Israeli leaders could not have imagined that Iraq would never try to pursue this project again.

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Operation Opera, as the historic mission is known, was a message from Israel to the nations that seek to destroy it: The Jewish state will not allow them to lay their hands on a nuclear bomb. Israel made good on that promise when it took out the Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007.

Israel has sounded the same message regarding Tehran's 15-year march toward the bomb, but things are more complicated when it comes to Iran. The Islamic republic's nuclear sites are spread out, and some are situated deep inside mountains or surrounded by sophisticated air defense systems.

Moreover, contrary to Iraq and Syria, Tehran knows that Jerusalem is taking steps for a potential strike; it will not be caught off guard.

According to foreign media, the Mossad has in recent years carried out a series of operations to stall the regime's nuclear program, including seizing nuclear archives, targeting the Natanz nuclear reactor, and assassinating "the father of the Iranian nuclear bomb," Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

Such actions may stall Iran's nuclear program but won't end it, and the challenges are not just operational, they are also diplomatic.

The Biden administration is convinced that the only way to keep Iran in check is through diplomacy, but Israel says it won't be bound by any deal with Tehran. Just last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would continue to deny Iran nuclear weapons even if that created friction with "our greatest friend: the United States." But it's safe to assume that the US' position will carry significant weight in any course of action Israel takes on Iran.

Israel has refused to hold talks on what it might get from the US if the nuclear deal is revived, for fear that this my come across as implicit endorsement. Nor is there talk on any side deal with the US in which the latter would pledge to bring Iran's nuclear program to a halt if all diplomatic efforts fail.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin, one of the eight pilots who carried out the airstrike on the Iraqi nuclear reactor in F-16A warplanes, believes that "a military attack on Iran is not the only option" and that it is "definitely not the time" to bomb Iran.

According to Yadlin, since the US is determined to return to the nuclear deal with Iran, "Israel must strike a separate agreement with the US that would address the question of what happens if all diplomatic efforts were to fail. Israel needs to reach an agreement with the US as to who would be responsible for stopping the Iranian program, how it would be stopped and when it would be right to act."

Still, he warned that "the Israeli Air Force and other agencies must continue to prepare for a military option in case all else fails."

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Iran on Wednesday again blamed Israel for the assassination of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and claimed that it had "strong evidence" of Israel's involvement in the Nov. 27 killing of the man believed to be the head of its military nuclear program.

Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Amir Hatami sent a letter to 60 defense ministers worldwide requesting they condemn "the Zionist regime" for the "inhuman, illegitimate and felonious move."

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"Iran possesses strong evidence that the Zionist regime was involved in the assassination. The Zionist intelligence services have a dark history of assassinating Iranian scientists," the letter said.

Israel, suspected of killing Iranian nuclear scientists over the past decade, has not commented on the assassination.

Hatami praised Fakhrizadeh in the letter, claiming that his scientific achievements have helped Iran fight the coronavirus pandemic. He called on the international community to "put aside the double standard" in its approach towards state terrorism.

He further hinted that the lack of response from the international community could lead to an Iranian response to the assassination, which might undermine the stability in the region and the world.

Meanwhile, Gen. Esmail Ghaani, commander of the Quds Force – Iran's elite extraterritorial black-ops arm – threatened Thursday to attack the United States "at home" in retaliation for the assassination of his predecessor.

Gen. Qassem Soleimani, considered the architect of the Iranian policy that positioned it as the world's top state-sponsor of terrorism, was killed in a US drone strike on Jan. 3, 2020, in Iraq.

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In what can only be considered a remarkable sight, a banner thanking Israeli spy agency Mossad alongside an Israeli flag was seen on a pedestrian bridge over a busy thoroughfare in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Monday.

A photograph and video of the banner and flag were uploaded to social media. The sign was written in English and said, simply: "Thank you Mossad."

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The message was apparently in reference to the recent assassination of top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was killed on November 27 in the city of Absard east of Tehran.

pic.twitter.com/IcLV42HOqI

— Aleph א (@no_itsmyturn) December 7, 2020

Iranian authorities have accused Israel of being behind Fakhrizadeh's death. Senior officials in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have threatened to retaliate military.

Users online were quick to point out that the road over which the unusual sign was placed is named after former Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated in a US missile strike in Baghdad on January 3, 2020.

The neighborhood where the banner was placed is considered upper-middle-class, educated and liberal-leaning.

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At a minimum, the 15-member body could discuss Friday's killing of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh behind closed doors if a member requests such a meeting or it could agree on – by consensus – a statement on the issue.

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But South Africa's UN ambassador, Jerry Matjila, council president for December, said on Tuesday that no member had so far requested to discuss the killing or Iran in general. Diplomats also said there had been no discussion of a statement.

The Security Council is charged with maintaining international peace and security and has the ability to authorize military action and impose sanctions. But such measures require at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China.

While no party has claimed responsibility for the killing of Fakhrizadeh – viewed by Western powers as the architect of Iran's nuclear weapons program – Iran has accused Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has declined to comment.

Washington, which traditionally shields Israel in the Security Council, has declined to comment on the assassination of the scientist.

The UN investigator on extra-judicial executions, Agnes Callamard, said on Friday that many questions surrounded the killing of Fakhrizadeh, but noted the definition of an extraterritorial targeted killing outside of an armed conflict.

Callamard posted on Twitter that such a killing was "a violation of international human rights law prohibiting the arbitrary deprivation of life and a violation of the UN Charter prohibiting the use of force extraterritorially in times of peace."

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's minister of state for foreign affairs on Tuesday criticized Iran's foreign minister for implicating Riyadh in Fakhrizadeh's killing.

"Iranian Foreign Minister [Mohammad Javad] Zarif is desperate to blame the Kingdom for anything negative that happens in Iran. Will he blame us for the next earthquake or flood?" minister Adel Al-Jubeir said in a tweet.

"It is not the policy of Saudi Arabia to engage in assassinations; unlike Iran, which has done so since the Khomeini Revolution in 1979," he added.

Jubeir's remarks appeared to be a response to comments made on Monday by Zarif which suggested a covert meeting in Saudi Arabia between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Netanyahu contributed to the assassination of Fakhrizadeh.

"[US Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo's hurried trips to the region, the trilateral meeting in Saudi Arabia and Netanyahu's statements all point to this conspiracy that unfortunately emerged in Friday's cowardly terrorist act and the martyrdom of one of the country's top executives," Zarif wrote on Instagram.

A senior Iranian official has said that Tehran suspects a foreign-based opposition group of complicity with Israel in the killing of Fakhrizadeh.

The group rejected the accusation.

Saudi Arabia has not formally condemned the assassination, unlike the other five Gulf Cooperation Council member countries.

Asked in an interview with Russian broadcaster RT on Tuesday to comment on the killing, Riyadh's United Nations envoy said the kingdom "did not support the policy of assassinations at all."

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