Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian firmly denied claims that Iran had plotted to assassinate Republican U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, addressing the allegations in an NBC News interview on Tuesday. Pezeshkian's comments came in response to assertions made by the U.S. government and Trump during his election campaign.
In November, the U.S. Justice Department charged an Iranian man in connection with an alleged assassination plot, claiming that Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps had ordered the operation to kill the U.S. president-elect. Law enforcement authorities had reportedly thwarted the alleged plan before it could be carried out.
Trump had previously suggested that Iran may have been behind efforts to kill him, echoing concerns raised during his election campaign. However, President Pezeshkian strongly refuted these claims during the interview. "None whatsoever," he said when asked if there had been any Iranian plan to harm Trump. "We have never attempted this to begin with and we never will."
Trump, who won the 2020 U.S. presidential election and is set to take office on Monday, had survived two assassination attempts during his campaign. One attempt occurred in September while he was golfing at his course in West Palm Beach, Florida, and another took place at a July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Investigators have found no evidence linking Iran to either of the incidents.
Iran has consistently denied U.S. accusations of interference in American domestic affairs, including claims of cyberattacks and other covert operations. Tehran, in turn, has repeatedly stated that the U.S. has long meddled in its own internal matters, pointing to events such as the 1953 CIA-backed coup against Iran's prime minister and the 2020 killing of its military commander, General Qasem Soleimani, in a U.S. drone strike.
As tensions continue to simmer between Washington and Tehran, Pezeshkian’s remarks underline Iran's stance of non-interference in U.S. domestic affairs, while also emphasizing the long-standing history of U.S. actions in Iran.