Iran to produce TV show on officer killed in Tehran blast
West claims Israel's Mossad was behind explosion that killed Hassan Moqaddam, the 'architect' of Iran's missile defense program
Iranian television will produce a 26-episode television series on the life of Hassan Tehrani Moqaddam, the senior officer who was killed in an explosion at a Revolutionary Guards arms depot near Tehran last month, Iranian media reported Thursday.
Channel 3 director Ali Asgar Furmuhmadi said the series about Moqaddam, the "architect" of Iran's missile defenses, will be produced in cooperation with the Revolutionary Guards. Filming is expected to conclude by the first anniversary of the officer's death, said the director.
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Iran initially claimed that the massive explosion at the arms depot, which killed 18 people, was the result of a technical malfunction. Iran later explained that the blast took place during research on weapons that could strike Israel.
Blast which killed Moqaddam (Photo: AP)
However, western officials claimed Israel's Mossad intelligence agency was behind the explosion and that it was part of a covert war aimed at thwarting Iran's nuclear program.
Brigadier General Moqaddam, hailed as the founder of Iran's missile program, was the most senior casualty.
In an obituary published by the Revolutionary Guards, Moqaddam was described as a "shahid (martyr)." The Guards vowed to continue in the senior officer's "path."
Moqaddam, according to the obituary, was one of the "cornerstones" of the artillery and missile units at the Revolutionary Guards during the Iran-Iraq war. "We will continue in his path and in the paths of the rest of the shahids – a path of courage, advancement and growing deterrence of the regime and the Islamic homeland," the obituary read.
The officer reportedly served as a researcher at a Tehran university and headed the "Jihad Self-Reliance" unit, mostly tasked with developing arms and missiles.
Senior Guards member Mustafa Izadi published an article saying Moqaddam's research helped the terror groups fight Israel.
"Undoubtedly, the blessed ideas of this shahid assisted in the victories of Hezbollah in the 33-day war (Second Lebanon War) and Hamas in the 22-day war (Operation Cast Lead in Gaza)," Izadi wrote. He was apparently referring to Moqaddam's contribution to the development of short-range missiles, which Iran transfers to the terror groups.
Reuters contributed to the report
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