Last Updated:November 09, 2024, 23:00 IST

A criminal complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan alleges that an unnamed official in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed a contact this past September to put together a plan to surveil and ultimately kill Trump

Shakeri told the FBI he didn’t plan to propose a plan to murder Trump within the seven days the official had requested, according to the complaint. (Photos: AP file)

Days after an Iranian man was charged in the alleged plot to kill Donald TrumpIran on Saturday dismissed the allegations as a conspiracy to complicate the issues between the US and Iran. Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi also called for confidence-building between the two hostile countries.

“Now … a new scenario is manufactured … as a killer does not exist in reality, scriptwriters are brought in to manufacture a third-rate comedy,” Araqchi said in a post on X.

“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,” Araqchi 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.

Iran’s Foreign Minister spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei also denied the involvement in the alleged murder plot and described the US Justice Department report as “completely baseless”.

Baghaei said Iran has been accused of similar scenarios in the past that have been “firmly denied and proven false”, Fox News reported.

He also said that repeating these types of claims “is a malicious conspiracy orchestrated by Zionist and anti-Iranian circles to further complicate the issues between the US and Iran”.

Earlier on Friday, the Justice Department unsealed criminal charges in a thwarted Iranian plot to kill Trump before this week’s presidential election.

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A criminal complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan alleges that an unnamed official in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed a contact this past September to put together a plan to surveil and ultimately kill Trump.

If the man, identified as Farjad Shakeri, was unable to create a plan by then, the complaint said, the official told him Iran would pause his plan until after the presidential election because the official believed Trump would lose and it would be easier to assassinate him then, the complaint said.

Shakeri told the FBI he didn’t plan to propose a plan to murder Trump within the seven days the official had requested, according to the complaint.

The plot, with the charges unsealed just days after Trump’s defeat of Democrat Kamala Harris, reflects what federal officials have described as ongoing efforts by Iran to target US government officials, including Trump, on US soil.

(with inputs from AP)