Zarif Hits Back at US for Accusing Iran of Abduction Operation

“US-affiliated gunmen hatch plots on US soil to assassinate leaders in Venezuela and Haiti while US government busily covers up its criminal ties by accusing others of a patently ridiculous, childishly conceived kidnapping operation,” the top Iranian diplomat said in a post on his Twitter account on Friday.

“Put your house in order before throwing bricks at others',” Zarif added, responding to the allegations raised by the US that Iran had conspired to kidnap a New York journalist who was critical of Tehran.

According to a US Justice Department indictment, the US prosecutors have charged four Iranians, alleged to be intelligence operatives, with conspiring to kidnap the journalist.

While the indictment, unsealed on Tuesday, did not name the target of the plot, the Reuters news agency confirmed the person as Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad, who has contributed to the Voice of America’s (VOA) Persian-language service.

Only two days later, the Pentagon said on Thursday that a small number of the former Colombian soldiers accused of involvement in the assassination of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise this month had received United States military training in the past.

Haitian authorities said Moise was shot dead at his home on July 7 by a unit of assassins including 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans.

“A review of our training databases indicates that a small number of the Colombian individuals detained as part of this investigation had participated in past US military training and education programs, while serving as active members of the Colombian Military Forces,” Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ken Hoffman said in a statement sent to Al Jazeera.

The US military routinely trains service members from the region, he said.

Meanwhile, the small Miami, Florida security company that hired the former Colombian soldiers faces questions about its role in the assassination of Moise.