Here’s the kicker: according to the Mexican government, there are no official reports of any such attack.
A diplomatic crisis has erupted between Washington, Tel Aviv, Tehran and Mexico City over allegations that Iran plotted to assassinate Israel’s ambassador to Mexico, Einat Kranz-Neiger. Given the claims remain unsubstantiated, come from unnamed sources of two governments (Trump’s and Netanyahu’s) whose words cannot be trusted, and has elicited wildly conflicting accounts from everyone involved, this post is, inescapably, speculative in nature.
Conflicting Accounts
On Friday (November 7), a US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, claimed that the Quds Force, the external operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), had planned to assassinate Einat Kranz Neiger, Israel’s ambassador to Mexico. Without showing a shred of proof, the source said Mexico’s intel services had foiled the plot.
The alleged operation apparently took place before the summer, and was hatched in late 2024. In a telvised interview, Neiger confirmed that her life had been in danger while revealing no other information. Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement even thanking Mexican security services for thwarting “a terrorist network directed by Iran.”
“The Israeli intelligence and security community will continue to work tirelessly, in full cooperation with security and intelligence agencies around the world, to thwart terror threats from Iran and its proxies against Israeli and Jewish targets worldwide,” said Oren Marmorstein, spokesperson for Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
But here’s the kicker: according to the Mexican government, there are no official reports of an alleged attack against Israel’s ambassador to Mexico.” Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
In a joint statement, Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) and the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection said they have received “no report with respect to a supposed attempt against the ambassador of Israel in Mexico”. The statement also emphasised that Mexico has not cut diplomatic ties with any country.
In other words, the sycophantic stenographers of the Western media, citing an unnamed US official, are reporting that Mexico’s intelligence services foiled an assassination plot about which Mexico’s government claims to have zero knowledge.
This, as far as I can tell, means one of two things: either Mexico’s intel agencies did not inform the government of the plot, which is hard (but not impossible) to imagine, or the plot was never foiled, because it never actually existed. In other words, this is just the latest episode in the long history of US-Israeli deception.
It is hard not to lean towards the latter. After all, the Trump administration is currently carrying out summary executions of boat crews of narco-terroristas on the Caribbean and Pacific without presenting a single shred of evidence of their culpability — and apparently without even having any actual knowledge of who they are. Here is former US Ambassador to Russia Michel McFaul openly gloating that US diplomats lie very often.
And here is Larry Wilkinson, the former chief of staff to former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, explaining, in the frankest possible terms, why he “never, ever” believes Israeli officials:
Pot, Meet Kettle
The same unnamed US official said the foiled plot was a reminder of the extensive network that Iranian authorities maintain overseas that is ready to strike US and Israeli targets:
“This is just the latest example in a long history of assassination attempts by Iran around the world against diplomats, journalists, dissidents and anyone who disagrees with it — something that should raise deep concern in any country where there is an Iranian presence.”
What doesn’t get mentioned in the breathless media coverage is that Israel, the country making the allegation against Iran, has carried out more targeted assassinations beyond its borders than any other country, including, I believe, even the US, since launching its genocidal campaign in Gaza two years ago. The victims include the 30 Iranian commanders and 11 nuclear scientists Israel claims to have taken out during its recent 12-Day War against Iran.
As Le Monde reported last year, “the practice of targeted elimination has been a constant feature of Israeli strategy, going back even before the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.”
According to an article in Axios, the plan to kill Neiger was hatched by Unit 11000, the “shadowy” Quds Force unit that recently “tried to conduct attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets in Australia and Europe, according to sources familiar with the matter.” The same outlet reports that the plan was conceived from Iran’s embassy in Venezuela, which neatly knits together two nations that are currently on the US’ — and in the case of Iran, Israel’s — hit list.
“A Media Fabrication”
Tehran has “categorically rejected” the claims, calling them “a media fabrication” aimed at undermining “friendly relations” between Tehran and Mexico City.
“The accusation about an alleged attempt by Iran to assassinate the ambassador of the Israeli regime in Mexico is a media fabrication, a big lie, whose objective is to damage the historical and friendly relations between both countries (Mexico and Iran), which we categorically reject,” the Iranian legation in the Mexican capital stated in a Twitter post.
The Iranian Embassy stressed that “Iran and Mexico share identical interests. Mexico’s security and reputation are also Iran’s security and reputation.” The embassy also stated that the Islamic Republic will never betray “the trust that the Mexican government has placed” in Tehran.
Iran would in no way harm the good image of Mexicans, its “friends,” in the world, said the embassy. “We consider that betraying Mexico’s interests is betraying one’s own,” the note reads, adding that for the Islamic Republic it is a priority to “respect the laws of Mexico.”
In a statement on Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei pointed out that Israel has previously made similar accusations against Iran, citing attacks on Jewish synagogues in Australia in late 2024. From Al Jazeera:
That appeared to be a reference to a testimony given by the New South Wales Police Force to the upper house of the Australian parliament in early October, which presented the result of an investigation into suspected Iranian links to 14 incidents of attacks on synagogues, graffiti, firebombings, and attacks on cars and homes.
“The NSW Police Force has nil holdings in relation to foreign agents perpetrating these incidents,” a police representative told lawmakers at the time.
“Despite official statements by Australian police rejecting any connection to Iran, Israel has continued to insist on Tehran’s involvement,” Baghaei said.
However, in late August, Australia accused Iran of directing two “anti-Semitic” arson attacks in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne and gave Tehran’s ambassador seven days to leave the country, the first such expulsion since World War II.
Canberra also designated the IRGC a “terrorist organisation” and withdrew its diplomats from Tehran.
At the time, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation had gathered credible evidence that Iran “orchestrated” last year’s attacks on a kosher restaurant and a synagogue, but did not release the evidence.
Mission Accomplished?
Judging by how quickly the fanfare has died down over the alleged plot against Israel’s ambassador to Mexico, one might assume that this presumed psy-op campaign was deemed unsuccessful, and has already been abandoned. Or perhaps the desired effect, of driving the initial edge of a wedge between Mexico and Iran, has already been achieved.
The fact that the Mexican government itself continues to deny any knowledge of the alleged plot does little for the credibility of Washington and Tel Aviv’s allegations. Perhaps if Mexico had a government that was more closely aligned with US-Israeli foreign policy — like, say, Argentina’s or Ecuador’s — this incongruity would have been avoided…
Nick Corbishley 