By MATTHEW LEE and DAVID KLEPPER
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mexican authorities with assistance from the United States and Israeli intelligence agencies thwarted an alleged plot by Iran to assassinate the Israeli ambassador to Mexico, Israeli and U.S. officials said Friday. Mexican authorities denied any knowledge of such a plot.
The plot to kill Ambassador Einat Kranz Neiger is alleged to have been hatched at the end of last year and remained active through the middle of this year, when it was disrupted, the U.S. officials said.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the intelligence, said the plot was “contained” and does not pose a current threat.
They did not offer details on how the plot was discovered or broken up. Iran’s mission to the U.N. said it had no comment.
“We thank the security and law enforcement services in Mexico for thwarting a terrorist network directed by Iran that sought to attack Israel’s ambassador in Mexico,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “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.”
Mexico’s foreign relations and security ministries issued a brief joint statement late Friday saying that “they have no report with respect to a supposed attempt against the ambassador of Israel in Mexico.”
The foreign ministry “reiterates its willingness to maintain fluid communication with all accredited diplomatic representations in our country,” the statement said. The security ministry “reaffirms its respectful and coordinated collaboration, always within the framework of national sovereignty, with all security agencies that request it.”
The State Department had no immediate explanation for Mexico’s statement. It said, “Iran’s international abhorrent plots, aimed at its own citizens, Americans, and citizens of other nations are inconsistent with the behavior of a civilized state.”
“The United States is working with likeminded governments to share best practices and threat information, raise awareness about the issue of Iran’s lethal plots, work together to counter these threats, and hold perpetrators accountable,” the department said.
A spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Mexico said in response to the Mexican authorities’ statement that it would not have any comment.
According to intelligence documents from one of the U.S. officials, an officer in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps named Hasan Izadi, who also goes by the name Masood Rahnema, initiated the plot along with other Iranian officials while serving as an aide to Iran’s ambassador to Venezuela.
The United States has long accused Iran of seeking to assassinate current and former U.S. officials as well as Israelis, including on U.S. soil.
AP writers Josef Federman in Jerusalem, Farnoush Amiri at the United Nations and Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City contributed to this report.
