Iran is trying to violate the sovereignty of the US, and testing the administration to see how its responds, Iranian-born journalist Masih Alinejad tells Israel Hayom in a special interview.

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Alinejad talks about her life under the shadow of the ayatollah regime and the events of last week, in which the FBI thwarted an attempt by Iranian agents to abduct Alinejad and bring her back to Iran.

Alinejad calls the Biden administration's policies on Iran "bad" – "not bad for me, bad for America's security."

The journalist said that the plot to kidnap her showed that Iran wanted to violate US sovereignty to see how Washington would respond. She said that the day the FBI informed her about the abduction plot, the US lifted sanctions against Iran.

"My government in the US is trying to reach a deal with that same regime. I'm a journalist and a woman's rights advocate. I'm not a criminal – and I left [Iran] to live in peace," Alinejad said.

Alinejad said she was surprised not by the plan to force her to return to Iran – 12 years after she fled – but by its daring. She noted that unlike the case of Ruholla Zam, who was brought from France to Iraq, where he was executed, in her case, the Iranians intended to "do the work themselves."

The Iranians tried to bribe Alinejad's family to trick her into traveling to Turkey, and looked into the possibility of buying speedboats and plotting getaway routes. Once the FBI exposed the plot, the agency decided to put her in a safe house.

As part of the Tehran regime's attempts to put pressure on Alinejad, her brother Ali was sentenced to eight years in prison

"The regime arrested him because he was my brother," she says. "They had my sister appear on television to talk against me on prime time, for 17 minutes."

Her brother, she says, called her in the middle of the night to warn her that if the family called to invite her to meet in Turkey, she was not to go.

"The regime did all that to silence me," she says.

Q: Aren't you afraid for the well-being of your family in the US and Iran?

"They [the Iranians] took pictures of my children … When I think about my family in Iran, I feel my heart being wrung. However, I need to make a very serious decision. When I think about the family, I must think about my nation. I can't say, 'Sorry, I can't be your voice.' I chose my nation. I'm subject to serious threats, and always need to look over my shoulder to see if anyone wants to murder me."

When asked if that prospect frightens her, Alinejad says she is willing to pay the price of being abducted and murdered rather than betray her nation and give the regime the "wrong message."

Alinejad became known through the "White Wednesday" initiative in which women living in Iran remove their headcoverings. She says she launched a campaign against the hijab mandate, and the regime used national television to propagandize against her.

The journalist says the mothers of the people murdered by the regime "give her strength."

"They explain that I'm their voice. 'Masih, we're with you,' they say. If citizens are willing to pay the price, then I should pay the price, too," she says.

Q: What is your opinion of the regime's anti-Israel incitement?

"The Iranian government has liked to brainwash us since we were kids. When I was a teenager it was like that about Israel, too. I was taught to shout 'Death to Israel, death to America' and today, people are shouting 'Death to the regime.' Now the Iranian people are refusing to trample Israeli and American flags. The citizens of Iran are so brave. Our enemies aren't America and Israel, but the regime."

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The post 'Biden administration's Iran policies bad for US security,' says exiled Iranian journalist appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Wednesday that accusations by US authorities that Iran is plotting to kidnap Iranians abroad who criticize the country are "baseless and ridiculous."

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The spokesperson, Saeed Khatibzadeh, was quoted by Iran's semiofficial ISNA news agency a day after US federal authorities in New York announced criminal charges against four Iranian intelligence operatives.

The authorities, quoting from an indictment, say the individuals plotted to kidnap a prominent Iranian opposition activist and writer in exile from her Brooklyn residence and take her to Tehran.

Khatibzadeh derided the plot as "Hollywood-style scenarios" and "baseless and ridiculous" accusations unworthy of a response.

"Making such an imaginary story is not unlikely by the US. Its entire short history is full of assassination, kidnapping and sabotage in other countries," Khatibzadeh said.

Later Wednesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told a briefing that Iran's "actions to attempt to silence the voices of those peacefully working to address the situation both inside of Iran and outside of Iran are appalling."

"We categorically condemn Iran's dangerous and despicable reported plot to kidnap a US citizen on US soil," she said.

She said law enforcement actions like those announced Tuesday were part of a strategy to defend US citizens and interests that include actions taken to defend US forces from Iranian-backed terrorist groups and diplomatic efforts to constrain Iran's nuclear program.

The indictment in Manhattan federal court described the plot as part of a wider plan to lure three individuals in Canada and a fifth person in the United Kingdom, along with individuals in the United Arab Emirates, to Iran.

The identities of the alleged victims were not released but Brooklyn-based Masih Alinejad confirmed that authorities had told her she was among the targets.

"I knew that this is the nature of the Islamic republic, you know, kidnapping people, arresting people, torturing people, killing people. But I couldn't believe it that this is going to happen to me in the United States of America," Alinejad told The Associated Press.

Alinejad, who worked for years as a journalist in Iran, long has been targeted by its theocracy after fleeing the country following its disputed 2009 presidential election and crackdown.

She is a prominent figure on Farsi-language satellite channels abroad that critically view Iran and has worked as a contractor for US-funded Voice of America's Farsi-language network since 2015. She became a US citizen in October 2019.

Before the plot to kidnap Alinejad started in 2020, authorities say, the operatives had made several failed attempts to lure her to Turkey by coercing family members to invite her for a reunion.

Alinejad's brother warned her of the scheme, she said.

"My brother exposed it and he was arrested" in Iran, she said. Other family members living in Iran were forced to publicly denounce her, she said.

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Roya Boroumand, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran, said the Islamic Republic has intensified operations in the past few years against opponents in Western countries.

Social media has allowed these overseas activists to play a larger role in organizing resistance to Islamic Republic policies, posing a threat to the government, Boroumand said.

For example, Alinejad has used the reach of her 5 million followers on Instagram to promote videos of women violating Iran's head covering law.

"It has led to many people challenging government agents in the street and this is something they do not tolerate," Boroumand said.

The post Iranian foreign ministry denies kidnap plot as 'imaginary story' appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.