Assassination Plot Against US Envoy Denied

EghtesadOnline: The Iranian Foreign Ministry rejected a report about Tehran’s plans to assassinate an American diplomat in South Africa, describing it as “biased and targeted”.

News ID: ۷۵۱۰۰۵

15 September 2020

“Such unfounded statements are part of the counterintelligence campaign of [US President Donald] Trump against Iran,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh was quoted as saying by ISNA.

The American journal “Politico” published a report on Sunday, accusing Iran of an assassination attempt against the American ambassador to South Africa, Lana Marks, in retaliation for Trump’s murder of Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani in Iraq earlier this year. The report cites two unnamed American intelligence officials.

“The US government’s resort to anti-Iranian accusations and lies on the verge of American presidential elections and its attempts to abuse the mechanisms of the United Nations Security Council to increase pressure on the Iranian people were predictable,” Khatibzadeh said, adding that such propaganda, which is expected to continue in the future, will be fruitless.

Washington has launched a bid at the UNSC to return all global sanctions on Iran, which were lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal. However, it has faced opposition by members of the council, as it has already quit the deal and is no longer a participant.

The spokesman said Iran is pursuing the case of General Soleimani through legal channels.

“As announced repeatedly before, Iran will continue the international judicial proceedings regarding the criminal and cowardly assassination of Major General Soleimani at all levels and will neither forgive nor forget this act of terrorism,” he said.

Khatibzadeh also stressed that as a responsible member of the international community, Iran has proven its constant adherence to global diplomatic norms while the current US administration has demonstrated its reluctance to basic diplomatic principles by repeatedly deviating from those norms.