- The plot was contained; there is no current threat, US official says.
- Mexico denies knowledge of alleged attack on Israeli ambassador.
- Israel thanks Mexico for foiling alleged Iranian plot.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps planned to assassinate Israel’s ambassador to Mexico from late last year, but the effort was limited and there is no current threat, a US official claimed on Friday.
Mexico’s government said later in the day that it had “no information about an alleged attack against the Israeli ambassador in Mexico.”
The US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the plot against the ambassador, Einat Kranz Neiger, had been active through the first half of this year.
“The plot was contained and does not pose a current threat,” the official told Reuters. “This is just the latest in a long history of Iran’s global lethal targeting of diplomats, journalists, dissidents and anyone who disagrees with them, something that should deeply concern any country where there is an Iranian presence.”
The official declined to say how the plot was foiled or provide more details about the operation.
In a statement, Israel’s Foreign Ministry thanked the security and law enforcement services of Mexico for “thwarting a terrorist network led by Iran that attempted to attack Israel’s ambassador to Mexico.”
The Iranian embassy in Mexico said the accusation was “completely false,” the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
“We will never tarnish the good name of Mexicans, our friends. We consider betrayal of Mexico’s interests as betrayal of our own interests, and respect for Mexico’s laws is our highest priority,” Mehr quoted the embassy as saying.
The United States and its allies have often claimed that Iran and its proxies have attempted to launch violent attacks against Tehran’s opponents. Iranian officials have denied the allegations, saying they are politically motivated.
A dozen other countries have condemned what they called an increase in assassination, kidnapping and harassment plots by Iranian intelligence services.
Britain’s domestic spy chief, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum, said last month that Iran was “frantically” trying to silence its critics around the world, citing how Australia had revealed Iranian involvement in anti-Semitic plots and Dutch authorities had revealed a failed assassination attempt.
