Iran's Foreign Ministry denied accusations of plotting an assassination attempt on the US Ambassador to South Africa

14 September 2020

 

The Iranian Foreign Ministry called baseless the claim of the American newspaper Politico that Tehran was considering the possibility of an assassination attempt on the US Ambassador to South Africa, the official representative of the Iranian Foreign Ministry Saeed Khatibzadeh said.


"These baseless accusations are part of the information campaign of the government of [US President] Donald Trump against Iran," the press service of the Iranian Foreign Ministry quoted him as saying. According to Khatibzadeh, "such methods, which are likely to be reused in the future, will undoubtedly remain ineffective and will add to Washington's long list of failures in the confrontation with Iran."


On Sunday, the Politico, citing representatives of American intelligence agencies, published information that the Iranian authorities were considering the possibility of organizing an attempt on the American Ambassador to South Africa Lana Marks as a response to the murder of the commander of the special forces "Al-Quds" of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qasem Soleimani. According to these data, US intelligence has been aware of the threat against the Ambassador since the spring, but in the last few weeks, more specific information has emerged about the impending attack.


Qasem Soleimani, commander of the al-Quds special forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed on the night of January 3 as a result of a US missile strike near the Baghdad airport. In response, on the night of January 8, Tehran launched a missile attack on two sites in Iraq used by the US military-the Ayn al Asad base and the airport in the city of Erbil.

 

GSV "Russia - Islamic World"

Photo: Creative Commons

Based on materials from TASS