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Iran Rejects Accusations it Was Involved in Plots to Assassinate Trump

Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani. AFP
Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani. AFP
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Iran Rejects Accusations it Was Involved in Plots to Assassinate Trump

Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani. AFP
Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani. AFP

Iran has rejected accusations regarding plots to assassinate former US President Donald Trump, while citing legal action for the 2020 assassination of a revered general by US drone, the state-run IRNA news agency reported Wednesday.

IRNA quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani as saying Iran “strongly rejects any involvement in the recent armed attack on Trump or claims about Iran’s intention for such an action.”

Kanaani added, "Iran is determined to pursue legal action against Trump for his direct role in the crime of assassinating Martyr General Qassem Soleimani.”

Soleimani was the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force and was killed in a US drone attack in Baghdad in January 2020.

A threat on Trump’s life from Iran prompted additional security in the days before Saturday’s campaign rally, but it was unrelated to the assassination attempt on the Republican presidential nominee, two US officials said Tuesday.

Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani, on Tuesday rejected the accusations against Tehran as “baseless” and “politically motivated.”

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Russia's Medvedev Says Ukraine Joining NATO Would Mean War

Russia's Security Council's Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev attends a meeting of the Council for Science and Education at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in the Moscow region's city of Dubna, Russia June 13, 2024. Sputnik/Alexei Maishev/Pool via REUTERS./File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Russia's Security Council's Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev attends a meeting of the Council for Science and Education at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in the Moscow region's city of Dubna, Russia June 13, 2024. Sputnik/Alexei Maishev/Pool via REUTERS./File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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Russia's Medvedev Says Ukraine Joining NATO Would Mean War

Russia's Security Council's Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev attends a meeting of the Council for Science and Education at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in the Moscow region's city of Dubna, Russia June 13, 2024. Sputnik/Alexei Maishev/Pool via REUTERS./File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Russia's Security Council's Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev attends a meeting of the Council for Science and Education at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in the Moscow region's city of Dubna, Russia June 13, 2024. Sputnik/Alexei Maishev/Pool via REUTERS./File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the accession of Ukraine to NATO would be a declaration of war against Moscow and only "prudence" on behalf of the alliance could prevent the planet being shattered into pieces.

The leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization pledged at their summit last week to support Ukraine on an "irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership," but left open when that membership could happen.

Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council and a leading voice among the Kremlin's hawks, told the news outlet Argumenty I Fakty that Ukraine's membership would go beyond a direct threat to Moscow's security.

"This, in essence, would be a declaration of war - albeit with a delay," he said in remarks published on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

"The actions that Russia's opponents have been taking against us for years, expanding the alliance ... take NATO to the point of no return."

In a standard Kremlin line since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Medvedev said Russia did not threaten NATO but would respond to the alliance's attempts to advance its interests.

"The more such attempts there are, the harsher our answers will become," Medvedev said. "Whether this will shatter the entire planet into pieces depends solely on the prudence of (NATO) side."

Medvedev also reiterated Moscow's line that the appointment of Mark Rutte as the head of NATO will not change the alliance's stance.

"For Russia, nothing will change, since key decisions are made not by NATO member countries, but by one state - the United States," Medvedev said.

NATO was created after World War Two as a defensive bullwark against a feared Soviet invasion of western Europe, but its subsequent inclusion of countries in eastern Europe has been viewed by the Kremlin as an act of aggression.