Iran denies assassination plot against Trump, calls claims part of ‘Iranophobia’

Just days before Donald Trump is set to return to the White House, Iran’s president has reiterated his country’s staunch denial that it was involved in a plot to assassinate Trump during his election campaign last year.

Massoud Pezeskian made the remarks in his first interview with a US media outlet since Trump survived an assassination attempt last July, and after the US Justice Department in November charged an Iranian man in connection with a plot to assassinate Trump the previous month.

Trump won the election on November 5 and is set to take office next Monday. “We never attempted anything like this in the first place and we never will,” Pezeskian told NBC News in an interview in Tehran on Tuesday.

He went on to say that accusations that Iran tried to assassinate Trump are part of “plans by outsiders” – referring to Israel and other countries – to “fuel Iranophobia”.

On relations with the US and tension with Western countries over the Iranian nuclear issue, along with Trump’s recent threats to increase sanctions and put more pressure on Iran, Pezeshkian charged that the US “tried to subvert the Iran”.

“I hope Trump will work for peace in the region and the world, not vice versa to contribute to bloodshed or war,” he also said.

Regarding the dialogue with the US and Western countries, the Iranian president said that his country has “kept all the commitments” regarding its nuclear program, adding: “But, unfortunately, it was the other side that did not keep the promises and his obligations. .”

Asked about a possible US-Israeli military strike on Iran, he said Iran would “react to any action” and defend itself, stressing that any attack on Iran “would be detrimental to all actors,” not just Iran.

On the issue of ongoing cease-fire efforts in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian organization Hamas, Pezeskian said Iran is doing everything it can “to bring peace to the region.”

Recent comments from participants in the cease-fire talks indicated a possibly imminent deal.

Israel continued the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 46,600 people, the majority of them women and children, after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.