Iran never planned to assassinate US President-elect Donald Trump.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said this in an interview with NBC News on Tuesday, denying previous claims by Trump and the US government.
In November, the US Department of Justice indicted an Iranian in connection with an alleged plot ordered by the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to assassinate the US president-elect. Law enforcement thwarted the alleged plot before an attack could be carried out.
Last year during the US election campaign, Trump also suggested that Iran could be behind attempts to assassinate him.
"No way," Pezeshkian told NBC News when asked if there was an Iranian plot to kill Trump. "We never tried to start with that and we never will."
Trump, who won the 2024 US election and will take office on Monday, has survived two assassination attempts during the campaign - one in September while playing golf at his West Palm Beach, Florida, course, and another during a July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Investigators have found no evidence of Iranian involvement in any of them.
Iran has previously denied U.S. allegations of interference in American affairs, including through cyber operations.
Tehran claims that Washington has interfered in its affairs for decades, citing events ranging from a coup against a prime minister in 1953 to the killing of its military commander in a 2020 U.S. drone strike.