A spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Iran criticized the United States for accusing the country of attempting to kidnap Iranian citizens abroad, calling it a “Hollywood-style” conspiracy.
According to the Associated Press, the US federal authorities announced on Tuesday that they had charged four Iranians with conspiracy to kidnap an Iranian opposition activist and journalist and other people living outside Iran. The Iranian ISNA News Agency issued a statement on Wednesday. Comment by Saeed Khatibzadeh. Khatibzadeh called these allegations “baseless and absurd.”
“The United States is unlikely to produce such a fictional story. Its entire short history is full of assassinations, kidnappings and sabotage activities in other countries,” he said of the alleged conspiracy to kidnap and criticize Iranian citizens.
An indictment in the Federal Court of Manhattan disclosed an alleged plan to lure opposition activists and four others to Iran and some people living in the United Arab Emirates. The indictment stated that Iranian intelligence had previously arrested and executed an Iranian journalist living in Paris in exile in 2020.
For more reports from the Associated Press, please see below.
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U.S. authorities cited an indictment claiming that these people conspired to kidnap a well-known Iranian opposition activist and writer in exile and take her to Tehran.
Khatibzadeh mocked the conspiracy as an accusation that is not worth responding.
The indictment describes the conspiracy as part of a broader plan that aims to lure three people in Canada and a fifth person in Britain to Iran along with others.
The identity of the alleged victim has not been released, but Brooklyn-based Masih Alinejad confirmed that the authorities told her that she was one of the targets.
“I know this is the nature of the Islamic Republic, you know, kidnapping, arrest, torture, and murder. But I can’t believe this will happen to me in the United States of America,” Irene Nejad told The Associated Press.
Alinejad, who worked as a journalist in Iran for many years, has long been a target of his theocracy after fleeing the country after controversial presidential elections and repression in 2009.
She is a prominent figure in Persian satellite channels abroad and criticizes Iran. Since 2015, she has been a contractor for the Persian language network of the US-funded Voice of America. She became a U.S. citizen in October 2019.
