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July 14, 2021A new case rekindles the never-subsided tensions between Washington and Tehran, the case of an alleged Tehran plan to kidnap Iranian activists and dissidents on US soil.



The US authorities' accusations against Iran are "unfounded and ridiculous", Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said at the end of the day, quoted by the semi-official Tehran Isna news agency, the day after US federal authorities in New York they announced charges against four Iranian intelligence agents, who allegedly plotted to kidnap a prominent Iranian opposition activist and writer in exile, Masih Alinejad, and take her to Tehran. Khatibzadeh talked about

"Hollywood-style scenarios"

and "baseless and ridiculous" accusations unworthy of an answer. "The making of such a fictional story is not unlikely for the United States. Its entire short history is filled with murder, kidnapping and sabotage in other countries," the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said.



The White House had previously "categorically" condemned the attempted kidnapping. 



The legal case

Four Iranian citizens have been indicted in the United States on charges of having orchestrated the kidnapping of Masih Alinejad, a critic of Tehran and who fights for the rights of Iranian women.



An Iranian intelligence officer and three alleged members of an Iranian intelligence network were accused in Manhattan of plotting to lure a US resident and human rights activist from New York to Iran. An indictment in the federal court in Manhattan alleges that the plot was part of a larger plan to also lure three people from Canada and a fifth person to the UK to Iran. Victims were also targeted in the UAE, authorities said.



The identities of the alleged victims have not been released but Masih Alinejad, an activist and writer living in Brooklyn, confirmed that authorities had told her she was among the targeted victims and that she was the United States resident in the United States. indictment. “I knew this is the nature of the Islamic Republic, you know, kidnap people, arrest people, torture people, kill people. But I couldn't believe this was going to happen to me in the United States of America, "Alinejad said in an interview with the Associated Press.