Iran and Russia deny US claims of interference
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Iran and Russia yesterday strongly denied US allegations of acting to influence public opinion ahead of the November 3 US presidential election.
Washington had accused Iran of sending “spoofed” e-mails to Americans “designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest, and damage President Donald Trump” less than two weeks before the vote.
According to US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, Iran had also distributed a video that implies that people could send in fraudulent ballots, including from outside the United States.
US authorities “have put forward a baseless claim on the verge of the country’s election so that they would advance their undemocratic and predefined scenario through shifting the blame,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said in a statement.
He called the charges “fabricated and clumsy” and repeated Iran’s stance that it favors neither Trump nor Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
The Swiss embassy in Tehran has handled US interests in Iran, since ties were cut after the 1979 Islamic revolution. Swiss ambassador were summoned after US provoked the allegation.
Tensions between the two governments have risen sharply since 2018, when Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of a landmark nuclear agreement with Iran and reimposed crippling sanctions in a policy of “maximum pressure” against the Islamic republic.
Also pointing the finger at Russia, Ratcliffe said both Tehran and Moscow seek to “communicate false information to registered voters that they hope will cause confusion, sow chaos, and undermine confidence in American democracy”
The Kremlin said the accusations were “absolutely groundless.”
“Accusations are raining down every day. All of them are absolutely groundless, they are not based on anything,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Khatibzadeh too urged the US to “cease the pointless blame projection, baseless accusations and fabrication of suspicious scenarios and try to act like a normal country.”
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Alireza Miryousefi, called the allegations “another scenario to undermine voter confidence” in the US and said the world had seen Washington’s attempts to “question the outcome of its own elections at the highest level.”
The US announcement came after registered Democratic voters reported receiving personally addressed e-mails in the name of the Proud Boys militia, and from an Internet domain linked to the Proud Boys. Several voters in Florida and other battleground states said they had received messages.
“You will vote for Trump on election day or we will come after you,” the e-mails said. “Change your party affiliation to Republican to let us know you received our message and will comply. We will know which candidate you voted for,” they said. “I would take this seriously if I were you,” the message ends, adding the voter’s address. Ratcliffe with FBI did not explain how the Russians and Iranians had obtained the voter information.
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