Iran's foreign ministry has rejected claims that it had plans to interfere in the upcoming midterm congressional elections in the US, calling the allegations dubious.
"The principled policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran is based on non-interference in the domestic affairs of other countries," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said in a statement published on the ministry's website.
"US officials' attempts to accuse Iran of interference in the US congressional elections are basically false and misleading, and probably rooted in a kind of unknown delusion," the official suggested.
"The US president has said that from the moment he came into office, Iran has been busy with its internal affairs, is so weak that it is focused only on survival, and cannot even consider regional issues. How can such an 'introverted' country, as American officials call us, influence US elections?" the spokesman asked.
Late last week, multiple US intelligence agencies expressed concerns about alleged "ongoing campaigns by Russia, China and other foreign actors, including Iran, to undermine confidence in democratic institutions and influence public sentiment and government policies."
The statement accused Russia, China and Iran among others of trying to disrupt the upcoming midterm elections, but admitted that US intelligence had no actual "evidence of a compromise or disruption of infrastructure that would enable adversaries to prevent voting, change vote counts or disrupt our ability to tally votes in the midterm elections."
Russia has been at the heart of Democratic Party claims of foreign meddling since Donald Trump's election in 2016. More recently, Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence accused China of being an even "bigger problem" in this regard. Iran, which has repeatedly accused the US of Washington of meddling in its own affairs going back to the 1953 coup d'état, has not been generally accused of meddling in US affairs until now.
