Iran plotted to assassinate Israel’s ambassador to Mexico, U.S. and Israeli officials say

Iran plotted to assassinate Israel’s ambassador to Mexico, but the plan was disrupted earlier this year, according to two U.S. officials and an Israeli official.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps had launched the assassination plot against the ambassador, Einat Kranz-Neiger, at the end of 2024 and it remained active through the first half of this year, the two U.S. officials said.

“The plot was contained and does not pose a current threat,” said one of the U.S. officials, who shared information about the plot on condition of anonymity. “This is just the latest in a long history of Iran’s global lethal targeting of diplomats, journalists, dissidents, and anyone who disagrees with them, something that should deeply worry every country where there is an Iranian presence.”

The U.S. officials did not provide more details about the precise nature of the plot or how it was exposed and disrupted.

An Israeli official expressed gratitude to Mexico for helping to foil the plot.

“We thank the security and law enforcement services in Mexico for thwarting a terrorist network directed by Iran that sought to attack Israel’s ambassador in Mexico,” the Israeli official said. “The Israeli security and intelligence community will continue to work tirelessly, in full cooperation with security and intelligence agencies around the world, to thwart terrorist threats from Iran and its proxies against Israeli and Jewish targets worldwide.”

Iran’s U.N. mission in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mexico’s foreign ministry and its embassy in Washington also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

U.S. and Western officials have accused Iran of targeting critics abroad with violent attacks, often using local criminal networks as proxies.

Last month, a federal judge in New York sentenced two purported members of a Russian mob to 25 years in prison each for plotting to kill an Iranian expatriate and critic of Tehran, Masih Alinejad, on orders from the Iranian regime.

In October 2024, British officials said the United Kingdom had responded to 20 Iranian-backed plots since the start of 2022, with those cases posing potentially lethal threats.

Tensions between the two nations have only escalated since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza. Iran has for decades been one of Hamas’ primary financial backers.

Israel and Iran clashed in a 12-day air war in June, with U.S. warplanes taking part in strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.