WASHINGTON: The United States on Friday accused Iran of plotting to assassinate Israel’s ambassador to Mexico, in what would be the latest attempt to take the two countries’ conflict to another region.
A US official said that the Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds Force initiated the plot in late 2024 and that it was disrupted this year.
“The plot was contained and does not pose a current threat,” the US official said on condition of anonymity.
“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.”
The US official did not provide detailed evidence or say how the plot was contained.
The Iranian mission to the United Nations declined comment.
US intelligence has previously said that Iranian operatives have sought targets in Latin America, where Tehran’s clerical state has a tactical alliance with Venezuela’s leftist president, Nicolas Maduro.
The alleged plot would have taken place after Israel on April 1, 2024 attacked the Iranian embassy complex in Damascus, then a close ally of Tehran, killing several top officers of the Revolutionary Guards.
That attack prompted vows of revenge by Iran, which fired missiles and drones against Israel.
Israel a year later carried out a much more extensive bombing campaign in Iran, which killed more than 1,000 people. The United States, Israel’s main ally, joined by bombing key sites of Iran’s contested nuclear program.
Iran’s religious state has been a critical supporter of Hamas, the armed Palestinian group in Gaza that carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Israel responded with a relentless campaign that has left most of Gaza in rubble and expanded its military offensive across the region, hitting Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Qatar and Yemen.
Israeli intelligence has accused the Quds Force of plotting against Israeli and Jewish targets overseas.
Australia expelled Iran’s ambassador over what it said was Iranian involvement in two arson attacks — against a synagogue in Melbourne and a kosher restaurant in Sydney.
Latin America is not a stranger to violence linked to the Middle East. A bombing at a Jewish center in 1994 in Buenos Aires killed 85 people, with Argentina and Israel saying it was carried out by Lebanese group Hezbollah at the request of Iran.
Iran remains home to a historic Jewish community despite the hostility to Israel by the cleric-run government that took power with the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Mexico, also home to a major Jewish community, has recognized Israel since the early days of the state’s existence.
Mexico, which favours non-intervention in international affairs, has taken a more cautious stance on the Gaza war than other leftist-led Latin American countries, backing an investigation into allegations of Israeli war crimes but maintaining diplomatic relations.
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