An Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps official plotted to assassinate Israel’s ambassador to Mexico, i24NEWS has learned. The existence of the plot was confirmed by a U.S. official and acknowledged by Israel’s foreign affairs ministry.
Hasan Izadi, an Iran-based officer in the IRGC’s Quds Force, previously worked out of the Iranian embassy in Venezuela, serving as second advisor. The Quds Force, akin to the American CIA, is responsible for Iran’s extraterritorial operations, supporting its terror proxies throughout the Middle East and around the world.
Izadi, who uses the alias Masood Rahnema, engaged in activities targeting senior U.S. and Israeli officials, and while in Venezuela maintained communication with the Iran-proxy terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The scheme to assassinate Ambassador Einat Kranz Neiger, Israel’s emissary in Mexico City, was initiated at the end of 2024 and remained active through the first half of this year, a U.S. official said.
“The plot was contained and does not pose a current threat. This is just the latest in a long history of Iran’s global lethal targeting of diplomats, journalists, dissidents, and anyone who disagrees with them, something that should deeply worry every country where there is an Iranian presence,” the official added.
Izadi has traveled extensively throughout Latin America, where he operates a network of informants, i24NEWS learned. While based in Caracas in 2021, Izadi and Col. Hossein Kiani-Mordi, Iran’s military attaché, contacted dissidents from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, to coordinate attacks throughout Latin America against senior U.S. and Israeli officials.
Izadi is pictured in a May 24, 2024 Instagram post on the account of the Iranian embassy in Caracas, shaking hands with Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro as part of a series of photos taken at a tribute for the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
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Izadi worked in tandem with Majid Dastjani Farahani and Mohammad Mahdi Khanpour Ardestani, both Iranian intelligence officers for whom the FBI is seeking information on their targeting and recruitment activities. Both are thought to have attempted to recruit U.S. persons in their plots against American government officials, i24NEWS learned.
In a statement sent to i24NEWS, the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs said, “We thank the security and law enforcement services in Mexico for thwarting a terrorist network directed by Iran that sought to attack Israel’s ambassador in Mexico.”
The ministry added that “The Israeli security and intelligence community will continue to work tirelessly, in full cooperation with security and intelligence agencies around the world, to thwart terrorist threats from Iran and its proxies against Israeli and Jewish targets worldwide.”