Mexico, with assistance from American and Israeli intelligence agencies, thwarted an alleged plot by Iran to assassinate the Israeli ambassador, Israeli and US officials said on Friday.
The plot to kill ambassador Einat Kranz Neiger is alleged to have been hatched at the end of 2024 and remained active until it was disrupted in the middle of this year, US officials told AP and Reuters.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the plot was “contained” and does not pose a current threat.
“This is just the latest in a long history of Iran’s global lethal targeting of diplomats, journalists, dissidents and anyone who disagrees with them, something that should deeply worry every country where there is an Iranian presence,” one of the US officials told Reuters.
Israel thanked security and law enforcement services in Mexico for disrupting “a terrorist network directed by Iran”.
“The Israeli security and intelligence community will continue to work tirelessly, in full co-operation with security and intelligence agencies around the world, to thwart terrorist threats from Iran and its proxies against Israeli and Jewish targets worldwide,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
According to intelligence documents from one of the US officials, an officer in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) named Hasan Izadi initiated the plot, along with other Iranian officials, while serving as an aide to Iran’s ambassador to Venezuela.
Washington has long accused Iran of seeking to assassinate current and former American officials as well as Israelis, including on US soil.
US President Donald Trump was believed to be one of the targets. A foreign citizen was charged last year with involvement in a plot, allegedly ordered by the IRGC to assassinate Mr Trump. And in summer 2024, the Justice Department charged a Pakistani man with ties to Iran in a murder-for-hire scheme whose targets were believed to be Mr Trump and other US political figures.
Last week, two men were jailed for 25 years over the attempted kidnapping of Iranian-American dissident Masih Alinejad on behalf of Tehran.
A dozen other countries have condemned what they called a surge in assassination, kidnapping, and harassment plots by Iranian intelligence services.
Iran has repeatedly rejected the allegations against it.