In an interview with NBC News, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi addressed several topics, including an alleged plot to assassinate the designated US President Donald Trump by Iran. Raisi denied the claim, stating that Iran has never attempted to kill anyone and will not do so in the future.
“This is another of these schemes developed by Israel and other countries to promote Iranophobia” Raisi said. “Iran has never tried to kill anyone, and it will not do so, at least not as far as I know.”
Raisi reiterated that Iran had never planned to assassinate Trump and will not do so in the future.
In September 2024, Trump’s campaign team announced that Trump had been informed by the US intelligence that there were “real and concrete threats” from Iran to assassinate him. According to Trump’s then-spokesman Steven Cheung, Iran’s goal was to destabilize the United States and sow chaos.
Trump responded to the alleged threat with dramatic words, saying, “If I were the president, I would tell the threatening country, in this case, Iran, ‘If you do anything that hurts this person, we will destroy your greatest cities and the country itself’.” He added, “Then there will be no threats.”
When asked about Iran’s reaction to a potential US and Israeli military strike aimed at stopping the Iranian atomic program, Raisi stated that his country was prepared for any development. He added, “Of course, we will respond to any action. We are not afraid of war, but we do not want it either.”
Raisi expressed the hope that the situation would not escalate, as an open conflict would be detrimental to all parties involved.
Furthermore, Raisi emphasized that Iran does not strive to build nuclear weapons, despite being accused of doing so. He also stated that Iran has fulfilled all its obligations, but the other party has not, referring to the talks between Iran and the major powers regarding the country’s atomic program.