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In mid-October, Iran sent a written message through a Swiss diplomat saying it would not seek to kill President Donald Trump, a U.S. official told NBC News.
The message came after the Biden administration sent a warning through Switzerland that an assassination attempt on President Trump would be considered an act of war, officials said.
Washington’s private message echoed the Biden administration’s public warnings about the potentially serious consequences of an assassination attempt.
The Wall Street Journal first reported Iran’s message.
Since Iran and the United States do not have formal diplomatic relations, Switzerland handles American diplomatic interests in Tehran.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations declined to comment Friday.
In July, the Biden administration received information about an Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump, and based on that information, the Secret Service tightened security at the Trump campaign.
The Justice Department last week charged an Iranian man with plotting to assassinate President Trump as part of a murder-for-hire plot.
According to the criminal complaint, the man was instructed by officials from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a military and counterintelligence organization designated as a terrorist organization by the first Trump administration, to plan to assassinate President Trump by mid-October. That’s what it means.
The official told the man that if he had not made a plan by then, the Revolutionary Guards would “pause any killing plans.” [Trump] “until after the U.S. presidential election,” the complaint alleges, because they believed he would lose, making it easier to target him.
This deadline appears to coincide with the timing of the message to Switzerland.
The Justice Department said the plot was part of Iran’s efforts to avenge the killing of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in 2020, during President Trump’s first term. President Trump ordered a US drone strike that killed General Soleimani in Baghdad.
Trump’s campaign was briefed on the Iranian assassination plot in September, which his spokesman Stephen Chan called “an attempt to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States.”
Last week, Iran’s foreign minister denied that his country was involved in the plot, calling the allegations a “fabrication” and a “hideous plot.”
President Trump was injured in an assassination attempt in July in Butler, Pennsylvania. Authorities have found no link between the perpetrators of the incident and an Iranian conspiracy.
The Trump campaign also accused Iran of a hacking attempt in June, and U.S. government agencies later acknowledged that Iran was behind efforts to jeopardize presidential campaigns of both parties.
Iran also denies these accusations, with its ambassador to the United Nations telling the state-run Fars news agency in September that these accusations are “totally baseless, lacking credibility and legitimacy” and “cannot be accepted in any way.” ” he said.
This article first appeared on NBCNews.com. Read more from NBC News here:
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