Iran Denies Report It Plotted Assassinations with Hizbullah

Iran's U.N. mission has strongly denied a U.S. newspaper report alleging evidence existed implicating Tehran or its Lebanese ally Hizbullah in international assassination plots, Iranian media reported on Wednesday.

"Iran has always condemned any terrorist acts and these baseless accusations are being made against the Islamic state in line with Iranophobia and the policy of putting illegal pressure on Iran," the Iranian mission said in letter to the Washington Post newspaper, which published the report, according to the Arman daily.

The mission called the allegation "baseless" and stressed that Iran itself had been "the biggest victim of terrorism in recent years," with the assassination of several of its nuclear scientists.

The Washington Post report on Monday cited unnamed U.S. and Middle Eastern security officials as saying evidence had been amassed showing Iran or Hizbullah were behind plots to kill two Saudi officials, half a dozen Israelis, several Americans and other targets in at least seven countries, including Azerbaijan.

Sources told the paper the plots were seen as part of an ongoing covert war in which Iran also has been the victim of assassinations.

It claimed that activity for the plots abruptly halted earlier this year, when Iran agreed to hold talks with world powers on its disputed nuclear program.

The last round of the talks, between Iran and the so-called P5+1 group comprising the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia, took place in Baghdad last week and ended inconclusively.

The next round of those talks are to take place in Moscow on June 18-19 as both sides publicly harden their positions for what are likely to be extremely tense negotiations over Iran's controversial nuclear program and Western sanctions.