Iran FM urges confidence-building with US

Araghchi made the remarks in a post on X on Saturday, a day after the US Justice Department claimed that Iran backed a plot to kill Trump just weeks before the November 5 election.

“The American people have made their choice and Iran respects their right to elect the president of their choice. The path forward is also a choice. It begins with respect,” the minister said.

Pointing to the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran just hours after he attended the inauguration of new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Araghchi suggested that the accusation against Iran of plotting to assassinate Trump right before he is elected has been made to serve the same purpose.

“Remember the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran right after our President’s inauguration? Everyone knows who did it and why,” he continued, adding, “Now, with another election, a new scenario is fabricated with the same goal.”

“As a killer does not exist in reality, scriptwriters are brought in to manufacture a third-rate comedy. Who can in their right mind believe that a supposed assassin sits in Iran and talks online to the FBI?!”

The top Iranian diplomat further noted that Iran has no intention of acquiring nuclear weapons, adding that this is a policy based on Islamic principles.

He went on to say that both sides need to build confidence, emphasizing that “this is not a one-way street.”

On Friday, the US Justice Department unsealed criminal charges that include details of a plot allegedly backed by Iran to kill Trump before Tuesday’s election. Iran rejected the allegations as “completely baseless and unsubstantiated.”

This came after Trump was declared the winner of the presidential election on Wednesday. On July 13, Trump survived an assassination attempt, suffering only minor injury to his ear.

In August, Iran dismissed having any connection with a Pakistani individual allegedly arrested in the United States and charged with being behind a foiled plot to assassinate US politicians.

The US, under then-president Trump, unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from a nuclear accord signed in 2015 with Iran and imposed a series of draconian sanctions on Tehran.

Trump also admitted having ordered the assassination of Iran’s legendary anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani in a US drone strike near Baghdad airport in January 2020.