Iran rejects reports on alleged plot to assassinate Trump

Tehran, July 17: Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani on Wednesday dismissed US media reports of Tehran's plot of an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.

In a statement released by the Iranian Foreign Ministry early Wednesday, Kanaani made the remarks in response to CNN's claim on Tuesday that US authorities "obtained intelligence from a human source in recent weeks on a plot by Iran to try to assassinate Trump, a development that led to the Secret Service beefing up security around the former president."

Kanaani stressed that Iran was determined in Trump's prosecution owing to his direct role in the "crime" of assassinating top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq in January 2020, Xinhua news agency reported.

However, Tehran strongly rejected any involvement in the recent armed attack against Trump or claims that the country intended to take such an action, said Kannani, noting, "Such claims are made based on biased political objectives and motivations."

Trump survived, albeit with an ear injury, an assassination attempt by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, which left one spectator dead and two critically injured.

CNN, in its report, quoted a US national security official as saying that the Secret Service and Trump campaign had been made aware of Iran's "threat" before Saturday's rally.

The report, however, said there was no indication that Crooks was connected to the plot.

Iran's UN mission rejected CNN's claim as "baseless and biased" in a statement issued in New York, according to the official news agency IRNA.

It added that from Iran's perspective, Trump "should be punished at a court for ordering Soleimani's assassination," stressing that, however, Tehran had chosen a legal path to hold Trump to account.