Tehran, Iran – Iran has branded accusations from the United States and Israel that it was hatching a plot to assassinate the latter’s ambassador to Mexico as “ridiculous”.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told reporters on Monday that Tehran believes Israel is trying to damage its “friendly relations” with other countries through an “absurd allegation”.
Unnamed US and Israeli senior officials told news outlets late last week that the Quds Force, the external operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), plotted to assassinate Israeli envoy Einat Kranz Neiger beginning in late 2024 and remaining active into mid-2025.
The plot was contained and does not pose a current threat, the officials said, without offering any evidence.
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs then released a statement thanking the Mexican security and law enforcement services for “thwarting a terrorist network directed by Iran that sought to attack Israel’s ambassador to Mexico”.
“The Israeli security and intelligence community will continue to work tirelessly, in full cooperation with security and intelligence agencies around the world, to thwart terrorist threats from Iran and its proxies against Israeli and Jewish targets worldwide,” a ministry spokesman said.
However, Mexico’s foreign relations and security ministries have since denied knowledge of such an incident.
In a joint statement, they said they have “no report with respect to a supposed attempt against the ambassador of Israel in Mexico”.
The statement emphasised that Mexico has not initiated disruption to diplomatic ties with any country.
Iran’s embassy in Mexico on Monday called the accusation “a media intervention and a great lie” and said it considers “betraying Mexico’s interests to be betraying our own”.
Baghaei said: “Our embassy stated that we found this allegation so absurd and ridiculous that we did not even think it required an official response from the spokesperson.”
Attacks in Australia
Baghaei was quick to point out that Israel has previously made similar accusations against Iran, citing attacks on Jewish synagogues in Australia in late 2024.
That appeared to be a reference to a testimony given by the New South Wales Police Force to the upper house of the Australian parliament in early October, which presented the result of an investigation into suspected Iranian links to 14 incidents of attacks on synagogues, graffiti, firebombings, and attacks on cars and homes.
“The NSW Police Force has nil holdings in relation to foreign agents perpetrating these incidents,” a police representative told lawmakers at the time.
“Despite official statements by Australian police rejecting any connection to Iran, Israel has continued to insist on Tehran’s involvement,” Baghaei said.
However, in late August, Australia accused Iran of directing two “anti-Semitic” arson attacks in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne and gave Tehran’s ambassador seven days to leave the country, the first such expulsion since World War II.
Canberra also designated the IRGC a “terrorist organisation” and withdrew its diplomats from Tehran.
At the time, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation had gathered credible evidence that Iran “orchestrated” last year’s attacks on a kosher restaurant and a synagogue, but did not release the evidence.
Australia’s move to cut ties with Tehran and proscribe the IRGC came shortly after the US and its European allies condemned Iran for what they called a surge in attempts by Iranian intelligence to “kill, kidnap, and harass people in Europe and North America in clear violation of our sovereignty”.
