Iran's UN mission rejects links with ‘assassination plot' against US politicians
Iran has roundly rejected having any connection with a Pakistani individual, who has reportedly been arrested in the United States and charged with being behind a foiled plot to assassinate US politicians.
The Islamic Republic’s permanent mission to the United Nations made the remarks in a statement on Tuesday after American news outlets broke stories about an "arrest" of the person in question, who has been named as Asif Merchant.
Merchant, the stories have claimed, was arrested last month, and charged with having paid purported hitmen to carry out the plot. The outlets have also cited an alleged affidavit by an FBI agent as suggesting that he had “current or former high-level officials like [former President Donald] Trump in mind.”
Reacting to the stories, however, the Iranian mission said, “We have not received any reports in connection with this issue from the US government.”
The mission also commented on allegations about the likelihood that the so-called plot was aimed at Trump, who ordered the assassination of Iran’s top anti-terror commander, General Qassem Soleimani, in Iraq in 2020.
“It is clear that this method contradicts the policy that is being led by the Iranian government towards legal prosecution of Martyr Soleimani’s murderer,” it said.
On July 13, Trump survived an assassination attempt while campaigning in Butler, Pennsylvania, suffering only minor injury to his ear.
Various US officials and media reports subsequently accused the Islamic Republic of having devised a plot to assassinate Trump.
Reacting to the accusations on July 17, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani called them a product of malicious political goals and intents, while the Iranian mission asserted that “Iran has chosen the legal pathway to hold Trump accountable” for General Soleimani’s assassination.
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