Iran sent a written message through Swiss diplomats in mid-October saying it would not try to kill Donald Trump, a US official said.
The message came after the Biden administration sent a warning through Switzerland that it would consider an assassination attempt on Trump an act of war, the official said.
Washington’s private message echoed public warnings from the Biden administration about the potential dire consequences of an assassination attempt.
The Wall Street Journal first reported on Iran’s message.
Switzerland handles U.S. diplomatic interests in Tehran as Iran and the United States do not maintain official diplomatic relations.
Iran’s UN mission declined to comment on Friday.
In July, the Biden administration obtained intelligence about an Iranian assassination plot against Trump, and the information prompted the Secret Service to increase security for his campaign.
Last week, the Justice Department charged an Iranian man with plotting to kill Trump as part of a murder-for-hire scheme.
The indictment said the man was instructed by an official of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a military and counterintelligence agency designated as a terrorist organization by the first Trump administration, to devise a plan to assassinate Trump in mid-October.
The official told the man that if he had not hatched a plot by then, the IRGC would “interrupt his plan to kill people.” [Trump] until after the U.S. presidential election,” because they thought he would lose and it would then be easier to attack him, the complaint alleges.
The deadline appears to coincide with the timing of the message to Switzerland.
The Justice Department said the plot was part of Iran’s efforts to retaliate for the 2020 death of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani during Trump’s first term. Trump ordered a US drone strike that killed Soleimani in Baghdad.
Trump’s campaign was informed of the Iranian assassination attempts in September, and his spokesman Steven Cheung called the plot “an attempt to destabilize the United States and sow chaos.”
Iran’s foreign minister denied last week that his country was involved in the plot, calling the accusations “fabricated” and a “disgusting conspiracy.”
Trump was injured in an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July. Officials have found no link between the shooter in that case and the Iranian plot.
Trump’s campaign had also accused Iran of a hacking attempt in June, and US agencies later confirmed that Iran was behind efforts to compromise the presidential campaigns of both parties.
Iran has also denied these allegations, with its ambassador to the United Nations telling the state-run Fars news agency in September that they were “completely baseless, lacking any credibility or legitimacy” and “not acceptable in any way.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
