Iran’s foreign minister has denied US charges that his country is linked to an alleged plot to kill Donald Trump and called for confidence-building between the two countries.
The United States brought charges against a man believed to be based in Iran, in connection with an alleged plot ordered by Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to assassinate the .
In a statement on Friday (local time), the Justice Department said that the man, Farhad Shakeri, had informed law enforcement that he was tasked with providing a plan to kill Trump, the department said.
Details of the plot were revealed in a criminal complaint that was unsealed on Friday (local time).
The complaint alleges that Shakeri was instructed in September to “put aside his other efforts on behalf of the IRGC and focus on surveilling and, ultimately, assassinating” Trump.
It goes on to say that, in a meeting with an IRGC official in early October, Shakeri was directed to “provide a plan within seven days to kill” Trump.
Shakeri allegedly told law enforcement he had no plans to formulate a plan to kill Trump within the IRGC’s timeline.
The department described Shakeri, 51, as an IRGC asset residing in Tehran.
It said Shakeri, an Afghan national, immigrated to the United States as a child and was deported in or about 2008 following a robbery conviction after spending 14 years in prison.
The complaint alleges that Shakeri also told investigators he was tasked with plotting the killings of two Jewish-American people in New York, and Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka.
Shakeri has not been arrested and is believed to be in Iran, the prosecutors said.
Iranian foreign ministry denies accusations
In a post on X, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said a “scenario” had been “fabricated”.
“As a killer does not exist in reality, scriptwriters are brought in to manufacture a third-rate comedy,” Araqchi wrote.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei had earlier said that the claim was a “repulsive” plot by Israel and the Iranian opposition outside the country to “complicate matters between America and Iran”.
In his post, Araqchi went on to urge confidence-building between Iran and the US following Trump’s election.
“The American people have made their decision. And Iran respects their right to elect the president of their choice. The path forward is also a choice. It begins with respect,” he said.
“Iran is NOT after nuclear weapons, period. This is a policy based on Islamic teachings and our security calculations. Confidence-building is needed from both sides. It is not a one-way street,” he added.
Men arrested in New York
The Justice Department has also charged two men, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathan Loadholt, who were allegedly recruited by Shakeri to kill a US citizen of Iranian origin in New York.
The complaint alleges that Shakeri, on behalf of the IRGC, targeted an “Iranian American journalist, author and political activist, and an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime’s human rights abuses and corruption”.
It says Shakeri promised a payment of $100,000 to the two men.
US attorney-general Merrick Garland said in a statement on Friday that there are “few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States” as Iran. Source: AAP, AP / Jose Luis Magana
Prosecutors did not identify the target, but it matched the description of Masih Alinejad, a journalist and activist who has criticised Iran’s head-covering laws for women.
Four Iranians were charged in 2021 in connection with a plot to kidnap her, and in 2022 a man was arrested with a rifle outside her home.
Rivera and Loadholt have both been ordered detained pending trial. Their lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump assassination attempts
There have been two suspected assassination attempts against Donald Trump in the US this year. In July, during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, Trump was grazed in the ear by 20-year-old gunman Thomas Crooks.
One 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 there had been while he was golfing on his course in Florida.
Law enforcement officials said Secret Service agents spotted and fired on a gunman in some bushes near the property line who dropped an AK-47-style assault rifle and was arrested after fleeing the scene.
Trump was not harmed during the incident.
The suspect, 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, was indicted on five federal charges, which he has pleaded not guilty to.
