Jornal Do Brasilia - US accuses Iran in plot to kill Israeli ambassador in Mexico

The purported assassination attempt came as tensions soared to new highs between Israel and Iran, which have each attacked the other's territory.

Israel said that Mexican authorities had intervened to stop the attempt to kill the ambassador, Einat Kranz-Neiger.

"We thank the security and law enforcement services in Mexico for thwarting a terrorist network directed by Iran that sought to attack Israel's ambassador in Mexico," Israel's foreign ministry said in a statement.

But Mexico's foreign ministry, hours after the allegations were first raised, said it had "received no information" on the alleged incident.

Without naming the United States or Israel, Mexico's Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, which oversees intelligence, said it was open to "respectful and coordinated cooperation, always within the framework of national sovereignty, with all security agencies that request it."

Iran's embassy in Mexico called the alleged plot "a great big lie."

The objective "is to damage the friendly and historic relations between both countries (Mexico and Iran), which we categorically reject," the embassy in Mexico posted on X.

Mexico historically seeks non-intervention in international affairs and has taken a more cautious stance on the Gaza war than other leftist-led Latin American countries.

Mexico has backed an investigation into allegations of Israeli war crimes but has also maintained diplomatic relations with Israel, which were established decades ago and have been largely cordial.

- Alleged Venezuela connection -

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 allegedly included recruiting operatives out of Iran's embassy in Venezuela, whose leftist president, Nicolas Maduro, has a tactical alliance with Tehran.

"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 said on condition of anonymity.

The US official did not provide detailed evidence or say how the plot was contained.

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 cleric-run state has been a critical supporter of Hamas, the armed Palestinian militant 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 militant 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.

F. Tavares--JDB