TEHRAN — In a tweet posted on Friday afternoon, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif slammed the United States over baseless accusations.

“US-affiliated gunmen hatch plots on US soil to assassinate leaders in Venezuela & Haiti while US government busily covers up its criminal ties by accusing others of a patently ridiculous, childishly conceived kidnapping operation.
Put your house in order before throwing bricks at others,” Zarif tweeted.

According to The Guardian, a group of two dozen mercenaries, including two U.S.-Haitian citizens and several Colombians, several of whom were former soldiers, stormed Moise’s villa, pretending to be a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) raid, overpowering staff, and security.

During the raid, Moise was shot up to 12 times and his house was ransacked. In the hours that followed, a number of the alleged attackers were either killed in shootouts or captured, some at Haiti’s Taiwanese embassy where they had sought refuge.

In a similar plot in May 2020, Venezuelan state media broadcast an apparent confession from former U.S. service member Airan Berry, who detailed an alleged plot to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and bring him to the U.S. 

On Monday, Maduro said that two U.S. citizens were arrested with a group of "mercenaries" who had planned to overthrow his government. The two men were identified as former U.S. Special Forces soldiers Luke Denman and Airan Berry.

SA/PA