Tehran and Moscow deny US accusations of influencing presidential elections

Iran and Russia have strongly denied the accusations made by Washington against them to obtain information related to voter registration and to initiate measures to influence public opinion before the US presidential elections.

TehranHours after a press conference by John Ratcliffe, the director of US National Intelligence, accusing Iran and Russia of obtaining information related to voter registration, less than two weeks before the next election, the Foreign Ministry Iran summoned the Swiss ambassador whose country sponsors Washington’s interests in Tehran to protest the accusations. Manufactured, “while the Kremlin deemed what the US administration had cited against Moscow as” unfounded. “

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh announced that the Swiss ambassador was subpoenaed after “unfounded accusations by officials of the US system of interference by other countries in the upcoming US presidential elections.”

He emphasized the Islamic Republic’s denial of “the repeated accusations by the US regime authorities, and the fabricated, clumsy and fraudulent reports,” reiterating that “there is no difference from Iran as to which candidate enters the House. Blanca “between current President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.

And he believed that American intelligence “pushed an unfounded accusation before the country’s elections to advance the predetermined undemocratic scenario, blaming others.”

Switzerland sponsors US interests in Iran in light of the breakdown of diplomatic relations between the two countries since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Ratcliffe had reported that Iran had emailed “misleading messages” to American voters, with the aim of “intimidating voters, inciting social unrest and harming President Trump,” and had distributed a video recording stating that people could send fraudulent ballots, even from out of states. United.

He also clarified that Iran and Russia “have taken specific measures to influence public opinion regarding our elections”, noting that the US security services concluded that “the information related to the electoral lists was obtained by Iran and, separately, Russia”.

He accused the two countries of working to deliver “false information” to the electorate, in hopes of causing “confusion, sowing chaos and undermining confidence in American democracy.”

Shortly after the Iranian denial, Russia expressed “regret” over the new accusations.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “The accusations are coming in every day and are unfounded,” expressing his “regret” over what US intelligence has presented.

Khatib Zadeh asked the United States to “stop casting useless blame, baseless accusations, fabricating suspicious scenarios and try to act as a normal country internationally and in relations with other countries.”

The Trump era, which has been in power since 2016, has witnessed growing tension between Iran and the United States, especially in light of the “maximum pressure” policy adopted by his administration towards the Islamic Republic, and his decision in 2018 to unilaterally withdraw from the agreement on the Iranian nuclear program and reimpose economic sanctions. Cruel to Tehran.

The US announcement came after Democratic voters said they had received threatening emails addressed to them personally and sent on behalf of the far-right group “Broad Boys,” ordering them to vote for Trump.

Voters in Florida and other major states said they had received messages like this.

“You will vote for Trump on Election Day or we will follow him,” the emails read, adding: “Change your party’s affiliation to the Republican Party and let us know that you received our message and that you will comply. We will know which candidate you voted for.”

The letter ends with the voter’s title, after a sentence that reads: “If I were in your shoes, I would take this message seriously. Good luck.”

Neither Ratcliffe nor the director of the FBI, Christopher Ray, who accompanied him at the press conference, explained how Russia and Iran obtained this data, nor did they explain how Moscow intends to take advantage of it.

For his part, Ray stressed that the US electoral system will remain safe and “solid.”

In the United States, voter registration information is widely available and some states allow anyone to access it, while others require that it be restricted to political parties.

American intelligence has repeatedly warned that Russia, Iran and, to a lesser extent, China have engaged in disinformation efforts on social media to influence American voters.

And in 2016, US officials said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had overseen hacking and social media operations aimed at helping Trump win the election over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Iran was accused of using the name “Brad Boys” in electronic messages after Trump refused to distance himself from the group that appeared at heavily armed political demonstrations and issued threats.

In early October, 13 men were arrested in Michigan, some of whom said they belonged to the group, for plotting to kidnap the governor of the Democratic state in order to “start a civil war.”

Ray stressed that his country will not tolerate “foreign interference in our elections” or any activity that “threatens the inviolability of the vote or undermines public confidence in the outcome of the elections.”

And the tech giants are preparing to face any potential threat to the presidential election. And Microsoft announced in the middle of last month that it had detected cyber attacks on election campaign teams from China, Russia and Iran, which denied these accusations.