- The plot was contained; There is no current threat, a US official says.
- Mexico denies having knowledge of alleged attack on the Israeli ambassador.
- Israel thanks Mexico for thwarting alleged Iranian plot.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps plotted to assassinate Israel’s ambassador to Mexico late last year, but the effort was contained and there is no current threat, a U.S. official said Friday.
Mexico’s government said later that day that it had “no information about an alleged attack against Israel’s ambassador to Mexico.”
The US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the plot against the ambassador, Einat Kranz Neiger, had been active during 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 lethal global attacks by Iran against diplomats, journalists, dissidents and anyone who disagrees with them, something that should deeply worry all countries where there is an Iranian presence.”
The official declined to say how the plot was foiled or offer further details about the operation.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement, thanked security and law enforcement services in Mexico for “thwarting an Iranian-led terrorist network that sought to attack Israel’s ambassador to Mexico.”
The Iranian embassy in Mexico said the accusation was “completely false,” the semiofficial Mehr news agency reported.
“We will never tarnish the good reputation of the Mexican people, our friends. We consider betrayal of Mexico’s interests as a betrayal of our own interests, and respecting Mexico’s laws is our top priority,” Mehr quoted the embassy as saying.
The United States and its allies have frequently alleged that Iran and its proxies have sought to launch violent attacks against Tehran’s opponents. Iranian officials have rejected the accusations, saying they are politically motivated.
A dozen other countries have condemned what they called a rise 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 “desperately” trying to silence its critics around the world, citing how Australia had exposed Iranian involvement in anti-Semitic plots and Dutch authorities had revealed a failed assassination attempt.
