Iran’s Foreign Ministry has strongly denied US claims that Iran was involved in an alleged plot to kill President-elect Donald Trump, dismissing the charge as a way to “complicate matters” between the US and Iran.
On Friday, the US Justice Department announced charges over the alleged plot, claiming that Iranian officials asked an Afghan national who currently resides in Tehran to surveil and ultimately assassinate Trump.
“Who can in their right mind believe that a supposed assassin SITS IN IRAN and talks online to the FBI?!” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X.
Araghci said that Iran respects the choice the American people made in the presidential election. “The American people have made their decision. And Iran respects their right to elect the President of their choice. The path forward is also a choice. It begins with respect,” he said.
Araghchi also reiterated that Iran doesn’t seek nuclear weapons and signaled Iran is willing to talk with the US about its nuclear program. “Iran is NOT after nuclear weapons, period. This is a policy based on Islamic teachings and our security calculations. Confidence-building is needed from both sides. It is not a one-way street,” he said.
Also on Saturday, Javad Zarif, Iran’s vice president for strategic affairs, called on Trump not to continue the “maximum pressure” policy against Iran. “Trump must show that he is not following the wrong policies of the past,” said Zarif, a veteran diplomat who served as Iran’s foreign minister during Trump’s previous time in office.
The previous Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” policy against Iran involved withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal, imposing crippling economic sanctions, and assassinating Iranian Quds Force Commander Gen. Qasem Soleimani.
Republicans have accused President Biden of being soft on Iran, but he has essentially followed the same policies. The problem for the US is that Iran found oil markets in Asia that aren’t afraid of US sanctions, a result of the US sanctioning so many different countries.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the next Trump administration is expected to “renew” the maximum pressure on Iran. Brian Hook, who oversaw Iran policy in the first Trump administration, is reportedly in charge of the transition for the State Department.
The same old playbook they used on George W Bush. Saddam tried to kill my daddy.
In that case, though, I think Shrub was himself part of the caper … in this case, I'm not sure about Trump.
They’ll do the connection with a cartoon drawing for Trump like Colin Powell did with the Iraq’s WMDs.
This is another indication that Trump is moving actively and aggressively against Iran and in favor of genocidal Israel. I know that the man is a bit "unpredictable" (crazy) but he's also easy to read (not too bright).
We don't know about Trump, he is unpredictable, but we do know where the hardline neocons stand.
Trump should recall what happened to JFK and his brother.
Even a phone call with Putin is risky. His appointments will tell us more.
I wouldn’t compare Trump to Kennedy, really. It’s clear that he and his sidekick Kennedy Jr. have serious issues with the deep state (CIA, FBI, etc.) but those are mostly domestic issues that suppossedly Trump is determined to tackle. In any case his VP choice and solid election outcome make difficult that he’s “forcefully removed” this time IMO. In fact I suspect that many in the deep state are trying to figure out where to hide now.
The US President has as his/her main responsibility (which is totally inherited from medieval monarchies) to conduct foreign policy (incl. war and peace). Talking to Putin was inevitable (less clear is if Putin wants to talk to anybody in NATO anymore): Ukraine is collapsing as we speak, for real, and it’s time for the US Empire to attempt damage control after two years of total corrupt and extremely ill-thought war fiasco. There have been many errors and crimes in the Ukrainian War but the worst of all was probably when the USA tried to get Ukraine to go on the offensive with NATO style strategy and zero air support, and even worse: to do that against the best defended Russian front, the Surovikin Line. I don’t know who was the “genius” who decided that but highest punishment is deserved.
The thought was that Russia would be weakened economically, between the war and sanctions and that Russians would overthrow their own government. All the US had to do was pull out enough jenga blocks.
TBH, I never fully believed that narrative: as European and critical thinker I realized quite early after the Ukraine War began, that the real goal was to devastate, loot Europe and turn us into a veritable colonial dependency of the USA, something that Trump kickstarted but that the Biden Administration made very painfully real, as should be obvious by the treacherous terrorist attack against Nord Stream. The irony is that the European political class was already so anti-Trump (and so heavily dependent on Wall Street’s media and economic stranglehold) that they sleepwalked happily onto our doom.
The plan to weaken/destroy Russia was certainly real anyhow but Russia quickly demonstrated that they were very well prepared for that (their Central Bank chief, Elvira Nabiulina, deserves most of the credit): they made their “real economy” assets count instead of just surrendering to financial blackmail and outright looting of their foreign assets. Apparently Putin had told his closest ally Lukashenko that “we can resist for a good while” or something like that. Again the arrogance of the USA and vassals backfired, and that is becoming a pattern already: they thought they could fracture Russia and failed, they thought they could order Ukraine to attack against the most fortified Russian line and failed, they thought they could genocide Gaza without consequences and failed… what next?
More hubristic stupidity?
I did not mean to compare the men, it is the circumstances the CIA and Dulles brothers in the Kennedy case and maybe the neocons in Trump’s case. I think that Putin is ready to speak with Trump or Kamala had she won or anyone with authority. Putin is a realist and will do what it takes to serve Russia and the Russian people. He is a Russian man who loves his country and the people. That is what I believe , of course I may be wrong, I don’t know.
Nothing is a more forceful removal than an assassination, the VP does not matter, it is only speculation anyway. My point is that we are not immune, it has happened in the USA too.
I believe that the issue is that the deep state (incl. their political branching into the neocons and the DNC) is weakish now, largely because their own excesses, which have eroded their credibility and cohesion and not served well the US interest.
As for the Kremlin, if you read RT and Sputnik News or follow military analyses (or also political ones more in the long term) of the war of Ukraine, you have to realize that Trump/Vance are not offering anything near to Russian demands/aspirations, which include “denazification” (de-NATO-ization), i.e. regime change and strict neutrality (cum demilitarization) of whatever remains of Ukrain. It’s too late for mere territorial concesions, for just telling Russia: “OK, you can keep what you conquered/liberated already 2 years ago”, much less for “trust us”, after the aggressive NATO expansionism eastwards breaching every single promise and agreement. Russia doesn’t trust the USA nor its European vassals (Trump will not be around anymore in four years or maybe less, as you speculate, the USA and NATO will be) and is very clearly winning the war as we speak, Putin already made the error of signing the Minsk Accords right when Donbass was winning the civil war and the Ukrainian army was collapsung back in 2015, he’d be a total fool to repeat that most serious mistake 10 years later.
I believe that, in somewhat different parameters, that’s also happening in the Middle East when Hizbollah proclaims that it will be solved on the battlefield: Israel is economically devastated, its military is eroded and can only do so much, and the pro-Palestinian forces don’t trust the West after the fiasco of the Oslo Accords, which turned a promising peace into Apartheid and Genocide.
The USA and vassals have exhausted the very limits of their credibility and thus are not anymore welcome at the diplomatic table almost anywhere. Their enemies can smell the weakness, they can feel the cracking, they are certain of their own moral upper hand and, even if they may have doubts (war is always scary and somewhat unpredictable), they just don’t see any exit that satisfies their demands.
Trump will find himself unable to bring peace unless he accepts that Ukraine and Israel have to make massive concessions close to renouncing to existance itself (that’s clear in the Israeli case: everybody agrees that the “two state solution” is totally impossible anymore). There’s where he may find lots of resistance within the US deep state, which is too committed to suicidal adventurerism in Eurasia. But I honestly don’t see Trump making such concesions anyhow, not in the case of Israel/Palestine in any case.
The VP does matter because he’s the one who becomes President if the current one dies or is otherwise removed from office. Then comes, if both die simultaneously or in rapid succession (else a new VP is appointed, I believe) the Speaker of Congress and then the Secretary of State. All are likely to be Trump-like, so, unlike with Kennedy, assassination is hardly a solution (military coup could do but good luck pulling that in the USA, really).
I agree with you, it takes two with a real, honest will to negotiate and reach a good and fair compromise, and end the slaughter. Americans want unconditional surrender, they are violent haters as long as others bleed and die.
Unconditional surrender is the seed of hate and revanche, the last thing normal people want. Unreasonable demands by one side proves the unwillingness of the party to compromise and end the slaughter. The Biden neocons are proof of it, as long as others are being slaughtered they want more war, it is profitable for their donor class the MIC shareholders. Biden looks as rotten as he is, he never showed any honest effort to end the slaughter in Ukraine or Gaza. Americans want war as long as others get slaughtered, including 70% of women and children. The ruling American elite are despicable evil people.
Americans can’t be trusted, Putin and his people know it, Germany was a reminder, Biden destroyed the German economy when he sabotaged the pipeline and with it the EU. It is suicidal to be an American ally, Kissinger knew what he said.
Looks like Trump is in the process to surround himself with neocon Russophobe war hawks. I wonder if that surprises Putin, I doubt it.
I doubt it too. It may surprise many of his voters however.
Just more PR to justify a war with Iran – as if the stupid US public even needed more PR for that. Hell, a decade ago 70% of the US population believed Iran already had a nuclear weapon, let alone a program. That's how effective US propaganda is on the dumb, ignorant US electorate.
The nation also believed that Saddam Hussein had WMDs in spite of the only known fact the whole world knew that there was no credible proof other than they found no proof.
A few days before 2024 Presidential election, CIA fabricated a so called leaked, intelligence material asserting an assassination plot on Trump. Understanding just what effect it would have on his psyche after the near death encounter, yet this only occurred after a proposed rapprochement by candidate Trump with The Islamic Republic of Iran. They are trying to manipulate him thur is ego not guided by knowledge. They will try if not having done so already to tie it with Trump murdering General Sulimani
”Complicate” is an accurate way to present it…
I don’t know how people feel about Wilkerson, here. But he claimed to have war gamed out battle with Iran and concluded that the US can’t win. He also believes that war is imminent:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=br_xcGgoXio
I trust Wilkerson, he has his opinion based on his experience, and of course to err is human. But I am convinced he is honest, and shows simple common sense based on his on the job experience.
Thanks. I have become cynical about most opinionators.
I try to keep an open mind, there are exceptions to the rules, the independent voices in the internet are part of that, I hope it is true. There is no conflicting logic regarding the opinions, and no obfuscating of facts and evidence. They are plausible, liars are not. I never watch MSM, I even miss when they do tell the truth.
What I see of msm is usually from sites that extract clips and break down the lies or outright mock them.
Omissions are unknown and can’t be fact checked.
Sometimes they are known. Look at the Israelis burning Palestinian flags and harassing people. Once they got their asses kicked, msm left out the first part and claimed they were victims of antisemitism.
We can be sure, all that is organized and paid for by the CIA and others. The CIA has an unknown budget managed by the state department, they can spend billions without accountability to congress and the people. That was where the money came from Nuland told us they used funding the Coup in Kiev. I bet they funded the Amsterdam riots.
Sorry, for responding so much, but Wilkerson in this video places the burden of the Russian clusterfuck seemingly on Slick Willie, which he deserves for the economic shock therapy via Yeltsin. But the Wolfowitz doctrine set the groundwork.
I totally agree with you, we forget PNAC and Wolfowitz and company, Wilkerson forgot “Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Douglas Feith, and Paul Wolfowitz—became the leading figures in the Bush administration’s foreign policy team.” I believe he had to cope with his own conflict and to come to terms with his trusting Colin Powell and his policies. Military people tend to be conservative and republican.
But they do want to be honorable soldiers, not lobbyists like some others.
Caveat, there are plenty of “defense” lobbyists in the military used as punditry on msm to encourage war and to claim we are winning.
You are correct. I meant former officials like Scott Ritter, and Macgregor and former CIA and diplomats, the people we read and listen to.
I think, lobbying should be illegal at least for 3 years or so after leaving office. Austin has a wide open door Jan. 21-2025 at Raytheon.
Not to forget the lobbyists for the pharma industry and all the others. Remember Tauzin?
“In January 2005, the day after his term in Congress ended, he began work as the head of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).[7] a powerful trade group for pharmaceutical companies. Tauzin was hired at a salary outsiders estimated at $2 million a year. Five years later, he announced his retirement from the association (as of the end of June 2010).”
On non-msm, I still find that, although more truthful, propaganda by omission still happens because of sentiment.
For example, I find Jeffrey Sachs to be largely credible, with the exception that other entities force the US into conflicts (like Israel). There’s still a hidden “the US govt is basically good” thing going on. Whereas the US govt is part and parcel of the genocide and ME expansion, not merely a victim of Netanyahu, although there might be hesitation on Iran because they are stronger than anticipated.
Yes, there is our corrupt, intellectually and morally bankrupt ruling elite and the real American people. Sachs and Wilkerson and so many more like them, all of the Napolitano guest list, are not part of the ruling elite anymore. Kudos to all of them.
I think they still represent a side within that is fighting for a different approach.
Otherwise, they might’ve been completely smothered.
I believe that the people who could did resign, not everyone can afford to do that, and there are people who truly believe what they are doing is right. But the ruling elite are wealthy people who could resign without losing financially or otherwise.
I believe you, at heart they are patriotic Americans.
Omissions are more deceptive than an outright lies.
Yes, they really can be. And lack of context.
We are talking about DELIBERATE omissions.
There are plenty of known omissions: the 2014 coup in Ukraine. The rightwing neoNazis of Ukraine encouraged to battle by McCain, Nuland, etc.
Anything that happened before Oct 7th in Israel. The conditions in Gaza. The pogroms. The elevation of Hamas by Netanyahu, and so on.
I mean, these were even reported in msm before they became a pillow of suffocation.
So true, it all is part of real professional manipulation of public opinion. Sneaky, they mention it and then sweep it under the rug to never mention it again. They can always claim they did report it. It is like Miller telling the ISRAELIS WE ARE CONCERNED, that is enough to not be complicit in the slaughter.
If Iran really wanted to get Trump, they'd have gotten him. Personally, I think it's all smoke and mirrors to either gain sympathy ("oh look, they all want to kill me") or burnish a tough-guy image ("oh look, they all want to kill me"). Either way it's Political Theater 101, and badly acted.
"If Iran really wanted to get Trump, they'd have gotten him" . LOL. "if the bank robbers wanted to robe the bank they would have done it".
If anything, most likely the neocons, the Russophobes did it, Trump is unpredictable, he could dare speak with Putin of all people.
Would anybody be surprised if they assassinated President Trump and then used that as justification for the US going to War against Iran?
Who are they?
The people who left the roof overlooking the Trump rally in Butler, PA. totally unprotected.
The people who want war with Iran. But Trump appears to be one of them.
It does not matter if Iran has attempted to take out Trump. What matters is what Trump believes. If he believes that Iran is after him, that will influence his decisions.
Trump has spoken repeatedly of "the enemy within".
History is full autocrats who fear there own people. Nothing new about that.
Why would Trump fear the People? They're the ones who elected him and delivered his Mandate.
Neither Iran nor the US want a War with each other. But there is one country in the Middle East who would love an all out US-Iran War sooner or later (preferably sooner) and they've been doing everything they possibly can to instigate hostilities. Once again the objective will be to get the US involved to engage in the heavy lifting to "make the Middle East safe for Israel".
If that is Israel goal, they will have four years to sucker Trump into such war.
They may get what they wish for, considering the pick of Trump appointees so far.