Is Iran after Donald Trump?

According to the Associated Press, US intelligence officials reported that Iran was behind the hacking of the Donald Trump campaign.

“We have observed increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle, specifically involving influence operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting Presidential campaigns”, declared US intelligence officials, as quoted by AP News.

Iran's mission at the United Nations decried these accusations as “unsubstantiated” and “devoid of any standing”.

However, that’s not the first clash between the Iranian government and the former US President and Republican candidate for The White House.

CNN reports that US authorities obtained earlier this year a tip that the Iranian government was planning to assassinate Donald Trump.

So far, no link has been found connecting the Iranian government to Thomas Matthew Crooks, the lone gunman who tried to assassinate the former US President during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

According to CNN, The Secret Service acted accordingly, increasing security around the New York mogul. However, that doesn’t seem to have been enough.

US intelligence sources told CBS News that additions to the Secret Service included counterassault and counter-sniper agents, robotic dogs, and drones.

The BBC points out that, since the Secret Service knew about the Iranian plot weeks before the attack in Butler, how some disturbed 20-year-old was able to slip through state-of-the-art security?

Reuters writes that the Secret Service has been facing criticism for allowing a would-be assassin to get so close to Trump. An independent Congress probe ordered by Biden is on the way.

According to the BBC, the Iranian mission at the United Nations condemned the US intelligence reports, calling them “unsubstantiated and malicious”.

The representatives of the Tehran government also described Donald Trump as “a criminal who must be prosecuted and punished in a court of law”.

Reuters writes that, for years, the United States government have been concerned about some form of retaliation from Tehran after the assassination of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani.

It’s important to highlight that, during the Trump Administration, the United States pulled out from the Iran deal. The New York Times explains that this put an end to Washington and other Western nations easing sanctions against Tehran in exchange for having the Islamic Republic to backpedal on its nuclear program.

The election of the reformist Masoud Pezeshkian as President of Iran after the untimely death of his predecessor sparks expectations of change in Tehran. But will things change after the election in November?

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