Iran’s security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, said this Thursday that a report about a possible plot to assassinate the youngest son of U.S. President Donald Trump is a lie, in an interview broadcast by the Lebanese television station Al Manar.
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On the occasion, when asked about the alleged conspiracy to attack Barron Trump, the secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council stated that “these are big lies with which (Benjamin) Netanyahu managed to deceive Trump”.
“If we had made the decision, nothing would have stopped us, but these are lies that Netanyahu invents. Trump was scared; he arrived in Turkey on that huge plane, and Netanyahu told him that the Iranians were working to kill him, so they put him in a food truck and smuggled him in as if he were a worker,” he added.
His statement comes just days after the United States Secret Service (USSS) acknowledged having knowledge of an Iranian video that appeared to threaten Barron Trump’s life.
“The U.S. Secret Service is aware of the video and is investigating anything that could be perceived as a threat against the people under our protection,” Nate Herring, spokesperson for the federal agency, told CNN in a statement on Tuesday.
He also added that “for operational security reasons, we do not discuss intelligence matters related to protection.”
The video, nearly three minutes long and aired last weekend by the Iranian channel IRIB, claimed that Barron’s movements were being monitored and mentioned a $10 million reward for his head.
It begins with a graphic in English that says: “Where to kill Barron Trump?”, and includes stylized graphics showing places where the young man is publicly known to spend his time, including Trump Tower in New York.
This incident, as CNN reported, marks the first time the youngest son of the U.S. president has been publicly targeted, although hardline Iranian state media had already disseminated threatening content against the Republican president’s family following the assassination of Iran’s former supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
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