Iran’s foreign minister denies U.S. allegation of plot to kill Trump

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi denied U.S. charges that Tehran was linked to an alleged plot to kill Donald Trump and called on Saturday for confidence-building between the two hostile countries.

“A new scenario is fabricated,” Araqchi said in a post on X. “As a killer does not exist in reality, scriptwriters are brought in to manufacture a third-rate comedy.”

He was referring to the alleged plot which Washington said was ordered by Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards to assassinate Trump, who won Tuesday’s presidential election and takes office in January.

The U.S. Justice Department on Friday described an alleged Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill Trump, charging a man who said he had been tasked by a government official before this week’s election with planning the assassination.

“The American people have made their decision. And Iran respects their right to elect the president of their choice,” Araqchi said.

“The path forward is also a choice. It begins with respect.”

He added that both sides need to engage in confidence-building measures.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said earlier that the claim was a “repulsive” plot by Israel and the Iranian opposition outside the country to “complicate matters between America and Iran.”

Iranian analysts and insiders have not dismissed the possibility of a detente between Tehran and Washington under Trump, although without restoring diplomatic ties.

“Iran will act based on its own interests,” Tehran-based analyst Saeed Laylaz said this week. “It is possible that secret talks between Tehran and Washington take place.

“If security threats against the Islamic Republic are removed, anything is possible.”

Iran’s clerical leadership is also concerned about the possibility of an all-out war in the Middle East, where its arch-foe, Israel, is engaged in conflicts with Tehran’s allies in Gaza and Lebanon.