Tehran: Western accusations of our assassination and kidnapping attempts abroad are "baseless"

SadaNews - Iran rejected on Friday the accusations made by the United States and its allied countries of adopting a policy of "assassinations and kidnappings" abroad targeting opponents, journalists, and officials, considering them to be "baseless," according to the French Press Agency. The spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, Ismail Baqaei, stated in a statement that these accusations are "an attempt to divert public attention from the main issue at hand, which is the genocide in occupied Palestine," referring to the war between Israel and the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip. Britain and 13 allied countries, including the United States and France, condemned what they called the increasing plots of assassination, kidnapping, and harm orchestrated by Iranian intelligence agencies against individuals in Europe and North America. The countries stated in a joint statement on Thursday: "We are united in our opposition to attempts by Iranian intelligence to kill, kidnap, and harm individuals in Europe and North America, in a clear violation of our sovereignty." The governments of Albania, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Britain, and the United States called on the Iranian authorities to immediately cease such illegal activities. The countries added that the execution of these acts is increasing in collaboration with international criminal networks. Since early 2022, London claims to have thwarted more than 20 plots linked to Iran to kidnap or kill individuals in Britain, including British citizens and others whom Tehran deems a threat. In October, Reuters reported that Iran is behind a wave of assassination and kidnapping attempts across Europe and the United States. The British government announced in March that it would require the Iranian state to register all political influence activities, attributing this to the increasing aggressive behavior of Iranian intelligence agencies.