Iran’s foreign ministry on Saturday (Nov 9) described as “totally unfounded” US accusations of a plot by Tehran to assassinate president-elect Donald Trump.
The foreign ministry “rejects allegations that Iran is implicated in an assassination attempt targeting former or current American officials,” spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement after US prosecutors announced charges over the alleged plot.
US prosecutors announced on Friday (Nov 8) that an Iranian man has been charged in an alleged assassination attempt on Trump.
US said the foiled assassination plot on Trump was allegedly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to avenge the death of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
The 51-year-old Farhad Shakeri, an Afghan national who is believed to be in Iran, was “tasked” by the IRGC with providing a plan to kill Trump, who defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 US presidential election, the department said in a statement.
Shakeri and two other men, Carlisle Rivera, 49, and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, both from New York, were charged separately with plotting to kill an Iranian-American dissident in New York.
Rivera and Loadholt are in US custody and made a court appearance in New York on Thursday.
“The charges announced today expose Iran’s continued brazen attempts to target US citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump, other government leaders and dissidents who criticize the regime in Tehran,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said.
‘Money’s not an issue’
According to the criminal complaint against Shakeri, he allegedly disclosed the plot to assassinate Trump in telephone conversations with FBI agents in recent months.
Shakeri held the conversations with FBI agents because he was hoping to obtain a sentence reduction for a person who is imprisoned in the United States, it said.
Shakeri told the FBI he was approached by an IRGC official in September about organising the assassination of Trump.
He allegedly told the IRGC official it would cost a “huge” amount of money, to which the official responded: “Money’s not an issue.”
(With inputs from agencies)
