Iran denies plotting to attack Emirati embassy in Ethiopia

Neither Ethiopia nor the Emirates said anything about Iranian interference in these issues,

Shafaq News – Iran has denied US and Israeli claims that it was plotting to attack the United Arab Emirates’ embassy in Ethiopia.

Iran’s embassy in Addis Ababa flatly dismissed the report, calling it “baseless allegations only provoked by the Zionist regime’s malicious media”.

“Neither Ethiopia nor the Emirates said anything about Iranian interference in these issues,” a spokeswoman for the embassy added.

Earlier this month, Ethiopian authorities reportedly foiled an attack on the UAE’s embassy in Addis Ababa, with police arresting 15 people and recovering an unspecified amount of arms, explosives, and documents.

US and Israeli officials told the New York Times on Monday that Iran was behind the plot and had activated a sleeper cell in Addis Ababa in late 2020 with orders to scope out the Emirati embassy as well as US and Israeli missions.

The US and Israeli officials said the plot was part of a wider effort to attack “soft targets” in African countries to avenge the killings of scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who is reported to have been killed by Israel in November 2020, and Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a US drone strike in January 2020.