Iran's foreign ministry spokesman on Monday denied Tehran plotted to assassinate Israel's ambassador to Mexico after Western media reports citing US and Israeli officials said Mexican security officials foiled the plan earlier this year.
The allegation was “so absurd and baseless that our embassy initially saw no need to respond,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday, adding that both the Mexican foreign ministry and its intelligence agencies had confirmed there was no such case.
“This is part of the Zionist regime’s ongoing effort to destroy Iran’s friendly relations with other states,” he told reporters at his weekly press briefing in Tehran.
Trump ‘confession’ filed at UN
Baghaei also said Iran has officially submitted US president Donald Trump’s recent comments to the United Nations as evidence of Washington’s involvement in Israeli military actions against Iran.
“This admission of a crime establishes the full responsibility of the US government,” he said. Iran is working with its judiciary and the president’s legal office to pursue international proceedings, Baghaei added.
Last week, Trump said he directed Israel’s strike on Iran during the June conflict. “Israel attacked first. That attack was very, very powerful. I was very much in charge of that,” US president told reporters last week.
Tehran, Baghaei said, is also documenting what it calls US and Israeli aggression for future legal use.
“We are seriously pursuing the documentation of the military aggression by the Israeli regime and the United States, and we are also examining all available international mechanisms to seek justice and file a complaint against the US,” he added.
Iran on agenda for IAEA meeting
On the nuclear file, Baghaei said it was not unusual for Iran’s nuclear activities to appear on the agenda of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s next Board of Governors meeting, adding that Western powers may seek to use the session to renew political pressure.
He also dismissed NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s recent comments accusing Iran and Russia of undermining international rules.
“Most of the actions carried out by NATO members themselves are the very ones they accuse others of committing. This requires no analysis – one only needs to look at the facts to see which side has violated international law and the UN Charter: Iran or the NATO member states,” he said, adding that the alliance’s interventions in Afghanistan and beyond had repeatedly breached international law.
Inspectors visit nuclear sites
IAEA inspectors, Baghaei said, visited several Iranian nuclear facilities last week, including the Tehran Research Reactor. Any further inspection requests, he added, would be reviewed “in coordination with the Supreme National Security Council.”
His remarks followed IAEA chief Rafael Grossi’s statement to France 24 that Iran still holds highly enriched uranium and the technical capacity to build a nuclear weapon despite recent Israeli and US attacks on its facilities.
Sanctions relief
Asked about Trump’s separate remark that Iran had requested the lifting of sanctions from Washington, Baghaei said lifting sanctions remains a “legitimate demand of the Iranian people” rather than a gesture of goodwill by Washington.
“These sanctions have been unjustly imposed on every Iranian for decades, and their humanitarian impact amounts to a crime against humanity,” he said.
Iran continues to insist on the removal of what it calls “unlawful restrictions” as a prerequisite in any future negotiations with Western powers, he added.
Ali-Akbar Velayati, international affairs adviser to Ali Khamenei, said Britain played a leading role in shaping the tone of the discussions.
“England was behind the scenes of the Manama events,” he told Tasnim news agency, saying London is “in the final breaths of power.”
The Manama Dialogue -- an annual regional security forum launched in 2004 and organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies -- drew senior officials from across the Middle East, Europe, and the West.
He accused the UK of fueling conflicts elsewhere, including the war in Ukraine, to weaken rivals.
“It was England that pushed Ukraine into this deep pit and provoked NATO to intervene,” he said, arguing that Britain’s influence has declined sharply as the United States under Donald Trump sidelined its former ally.
Western officials target Iran
Velayati did not name the officials he accused of making anti-Iran remarks, but at the Manama Dialogue conference, senior Western ministers singled out Tehran’s behavior as a regional threat.
“We know that Iran has been obviously a long-term threat to the stability and security across this region, but also more widely,” UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said at the forum. “In the UK, we have had Iran-backed threats on our streets too.”
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Berlin, Paris, and London had “to trigger, unfortunately, the snap-back mechanism,” adding that “the behavior of Iran here in the region, and of course also the missile program” would remain central to future talks.
Tehran rejects accusations
Velayati dismissed such remarks as baseless, saying some of the same states criticizing Iran have a record of “supporting killers and terrorists” in Sudan and Yemen. “Those who, with British weapons, assist in the massacres in Sudan cannot speak about Iran’s peaceful role in the region,” he said.
He described Iran as a historic force for stability and solidarity among its neighbors, adding that “small states of the region have always been supported by Iran” and that Tehran has never sought domination over others.
The dissident activist made the remarks in Berlin on the sidelines of the annual forum of the World Liberty Congress, a movement she co-founded in 2022 along with Russian activist Garry Kasparov and Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López.
“We intend to increase pressure on dictators by uniting opposition movements from different countries," she said.
Alinejad compared Iran’s compulsory hijab laws and political repression to the Berlin Wall, telling Iran International that Iranians are destroying this wall through their defiance.
The World Liberty Congress is holding its second annual gathering on the sidelines of the Freedom Week marking the 36th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The gathering has brought together 180 participants from 60 countries including opposition figures, lawmakers, and rights activists from Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and China.
The event aims to coordinate global strategies to defend democracy and counter the spread of autocracy.
Practicing democracy in exile
Alinejad said the three founders of the World Liberty Congress had decided not to stand in this year’s internal elections to demonstrate democratic accountability.
“Mr. Leopoldo López, Garry Kasparov and I oppose Khamenei, Maduro and Putin, and to prove we are not like the dictators, we told the Berlin parliament that in the World Liberty Congress elections we will step aside so others can present themselves as the congress’s president, vice president and secretary this year.”
“This is an exercise to show democratic countries that we can hold elections and free ourselves from dictators,” added Alinejad.
The activist previously defined the World Liberty Congress as an alternative to the United Nations, which she said "has become a place to unite dictators."