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Enioluwa Adeniyi
Guest
Iran’s foreign ministry has labelled as “totally unfounded” the recent US allegations implicating Tehran in a plot to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump.
The ministry’s spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, issued a statement on Saturday, November 9, rejecting claims that Iran was involved in planning an attack on any American officials, past or present.
“The foreign ministry rejects allegations that Iran is implicated in an assassination attempt targeting former or current American officials,” Baghaei said, following the announcement by US prosecutors of charges related to the alleged plot.
On Friday, November 8, US prosecutors charged an Iranian man, 51-year-old Farhad Shakeri, an Afghan national believed to be in Iran, in connection with an alleged plan to assassinate Trump.
According to the US Department of Justice, Shakeri was “tasked” by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with orchestrating the plan as an act of retaliation for the death of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US strike in 2020 under Trump’s orders.
The department’s statement further revealed that Shakeri allegedly communicated details of the plot during telephone conversations with FBI agents in recent months.
In addition, Shakeri, alongside two other men—Carlisle Rivera, 49, and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, both from New York—faced separate charges related to a conspiracy to kill an Iranian-American dissident in New York.
Rivera and Loadholt have been taken into US custody and appeared in court in New York on Thursday.
FBI Director Christopher Wray commented on the charges, stating, “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.”
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