Iran rejects ‘absurd’ claim it plotted to assassinate Israeli ambassador to Mexico

Iran on Monday dismissed accusations by Israel and the United States that Tehran had attempted to kill the Israeli ambassador in Mexico, describing the claim as “absurd.”

“We found this claim very ridiculous and absurd,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said during a weekly press briefing, alleging that it was part of an attempt “to destroy Iran’s friendly relations with other countries.”

Following Washington’s accusation on Friday of the assassination attempt, Israel’s Foreign Ministry thanked Mexican authorities “for thwarting a terrorist network directed by Iran.”

But Mexico’s Foreign Ministry later said it had “received no information” on the alleged plot, and Iran’s embassy in Mexico called it “a great big lie.”

A US official said that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force initiated the plot in late 2024 and that it was disrupted earlier this year.

The alleged plot involved recruiting operatives through Iran’s embassy in Venezuela, whose leftist president, Nicolas Maduro, maintains a tactical alliance with Tehran.

“The entire matter was fabricated,” Baqaei said.

Israeli Ambassador Einat Kranz-Neiger, when asked by Mexican media about the conflicting statements, said she was “unaware of the reasons” for Mexico’s denial.

“Those who acted to neutralize this threat were the Mexican security and intelligence authorities,” she told Radio Formula last week.

Plans for the assassination were hatched by the Quds Force’s Unit 11000, which has also advanced attacks in recent months against Jewish targets in Australia and Europe, according to sources cited by Haaretz and Axios.

The source cited by Haaretz said an IRGC officer named Hasan Izadi, who allegedly initiated the plot, had been responsible at Iran’s embassy in Venezuela for recruiting and handling IRGC agents throughout Latin America.

In mid-June, Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran, triggering a 12-day war during which the US briefly joined with strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. Israel said its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program was necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from realizing its avowed plan to destroy the Jewish state.

Iran has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However, it enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities. Israel said Iran had recently taken steps toward weaponization.

Iran retaliated to Israel’s strikes by launching over 500 ballistic missiles and around 1,100 drones at Israel. The attacks killed 32 people and wounded over 3,000 in Israel, according to health officials and hospitals.

Iran and Israel have also been engaged in a decades-long shadow war, with Tehran repeatedly seeking — and at times succeeding, with deadly results — to attack Israeli and Jewish targets around the world.