Iran denies links to alleged assassination plot against Trump after US justice department indicts man

Iran’s foreign minister has rejected US accusations that his country is linked to an alleged plot to kill Donald Trump and called for increased trust between the two countries.

The United States has filed charges against a man believed to be in Iran in connection with an alleged plot by Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to order assassinations in Iran. .

In a statement on Friday (local time), the Justice Department said the man, named Farhad Shakeri, notified law enforcement that he had been assigned to devise a plan to kill Trump.

Details of the conspiracy were revealed in the criminal complaint announced on Friday (local time).

The complaint alleges that Shakeri was instructed in September to “set aside his other efforts on behalf of the Revolutionary Guard and focus on surveilling and ultimately assassinating Trump.”

In a meeting with an IRGC official in early October, Shakeri is said to have been instructed to “present a plan to kill Trump within seven days.”

Shakeri allegedly told law enforcement that the IRGC had no plans to create a plot to kill Trump within the timeline.

The ministry identified Shakeri, 51, as a member of the Revolutionary Guard based in Tehran.

It was stated that Shakeri, an Afghan citizen, immigrated to the United States as a child and was deported in 2008 after being convicted of robbery after serving 14 years in prison.

The complaint alleges that Shakeri also told investigators that he was tasked with planning the murders of two Jewish Americans in New York and Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka.

Shakeri has not been arrested and is believed to be in Iran, prosecutors said.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry rejected the accusations

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said in a post about X that a “scenario” had been “fabricated”.

“Since a murderer doesn’t actually exist, the screenwriters are assigned to make a third-rate comedy,” Araqchi wrote.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei had previously said the claim was a “disgusting” conspiracy by Israel and the Iranian opposition outside the country “to complicate matters between America and Iran.”

In his post, Araqchi called for building trust between Iran and the USA after Trump’s election.

“The American people have made their decision. Iran also respects their right to choose the president of their choice. The path forward is also a choice. It starts with respect,” he said.

“Iran is NOT seeking nuclear weapons, period. This is a policy based on Islamic teachings and our security calculations. Both sides need trust building. This is not a one-way street,” he added.

Men arrested in New York

The Justice Department also indicted two men, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathan Loadholt, who were allegedly recruited by Shakeri to kill a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin in New York.

The complaint alleges that Shakeri targeted “an Iranian American journalist, author, and political activist and an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime’s human rights abuses and corruption” on behalf of the Revolutionary Guard.

It is stated that Shakeri promised to pay the two men $100,000.

“There are few actors in the world who pose as serious a threat to the national security of the United States as Iran,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Friday. Source: AAP, AP / José Luis Magana

Prosecutors did not identify the target, but it matched the description of journalist and activist Masih Alinejad, who is critical of Iran’s hijab laws for women.

In 2021, four Iranians were charged in connection with a plot to kidnap him, and in 2022, a man was arrested with a rifle outside his home.

It was decided that both Rivera and Loadholt would be detained during the trial. His lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Assassination attempts on Trump

There have been two suspected assassination attempts against Donald Trump in the United States this year. During a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July, Trump was grazed on the ear by 20-year-old gunman Thomas Crooks.

A rally attendant was killed in the gunfire, and Crooks was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper.

In September, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said: Playing golf on his course in Florida.

Secret Service agents spotted a gunman who had dropped an AK-47-style assault rifle in some bushes near the property line, opened fire on him, and was arrested after he fled the scene, law enforcement officials said.

Trump was not harmed during the incident.

The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was charged with five federal charges to which he pleaded not guilty.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry rejected the accusations

Men arrested in New York

Assassination attempts on Trump

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