Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The murder of M Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was a heavy psychological blow to Iran. Now the public in this country is demanding a decisive response that would be commensurate with the scale of the incident, as this undermines Iran’s reputation, writes Rai Al Youm (UK).

This is due to the fact that after the more frequent series of provocations by the United States and Israel, public opinion in the region’s countries is skeptical about Iranian warnings to enemies.

With this in mind, it is likely that today at closed meetings, Iranian politicians are actively discussing how to respond to the operation, which was the result of the joint work of the Israeli and American intelligence services. At the same time, the positions of the Iranian authorities on this issue differ.

The first group, which is a moderate wing led by President Rouhani, believes that the purpose of the assassination is to provoke Iran into a hasty retaliatory strike, which would give the US-Israeli tandem a pretext to launch a large-scale offensive to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities. It is noteworthy that preparations for this attack are almost complete with the arrival of aircraft carriers and bombers.

B-52 to the Persian Gulf and other parts of the Middle East.

The second group is headed by the Supreme Leader of Iran A. Khamenei and the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps H. Salami. They demand an immediate and decisive response, without waiting for the end of the change of administrations in the United States, since the "cup is full" and Iran’s status as the leader of the "axis of resistance" and the Shiite world has been sharply shaken. Currently, politicians in this wing are targeting a swift retaliation strike, either inside or outside occupied Palestine.

On the whole, the elimination of the founder of the Iranian nuclear program exacerbates divisions in Iranian political circles. At the same time, the second group of hard-line politicians today has a strong position in the Iranian political arena. With this in mind, a number of experts believe that Iran’s response can be complex, using the capabilities of pro-Iranian armed formations in the region.