A US official reveals to the Daily Mail that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard had a plot to assassinate the Israeli ambassador to Mexico.
The plot to kill Einat Kranz Neiger was hatched at the end of 2024 and was active through the first half of this year.
By late 2024, Western intelligence agencies had tracked an alleged assassination plot tied to Hasan Izadi, a senior officer in Iran’s Quds Force, the overseas arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, responsible for foreign operations and support to allied militias across the Middle East, including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.
Investigators say Izadi, who goes by the alias Masood Rahnema, was directing an effort to kill the Israeli ambassador, working as a double-agent.
Izadi had been posted as second adviser at Iran’s embassy in Venezuela, a diplomatic role that US and allied officials now believe doubled as a cover for lethal operations targeting American and Israeli officials.
During his time in Caracas, he reportedly stayed in regular contact with Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon.
Intelligence reports shown to the Daily Mail indicate Izadi has traveled through Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, cultivating a network of informants and facilitators across Latin America.
The Quds Force plays a central role in Iran’s foreign military and intelligence strategy, asserting influence across Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and beyond.
Four of the plotters meeting at an apartment in Venezuela. IRGC-QF officer Hasan Izadi, known as Masood Rahnema (center), Iranian intelligence officer Majid Dastjani Farahani (far left), and Iranian intelligence officer Mohammad Mahdi Khanpour Ardestani (far right)
The FBI is currently seeking information on Farahani (far left) for recruitment of individuals inside of the US to lethally target current and former US government officials
IRG-QF officer Hasan Izadi aka Masood Rahnema (far right) at an event with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to memorialize the death of former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi
Members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) marching during the annual ‘Sacred Defence Week’ military parade
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pictured speaking to members of Iran’s air force in Tehran on February 7, 2025. Khamenei has urged his government not to negotiate with the United States, saying it would be ‘unwise’
Israel’s Ambassador to Mexico, Einat Kranz Neiger
‘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 US official who requested anonymity told the Daily Mail.
The source tells the Daily Mail the plot was contained and does not pose a threat at this time.
Kranz Neiger remains in Mexico City in her role as ambassador. Izadi is alive and still in Iran, according to US intelligence.
Since the 1979 revolution, the IRGC has become the main instrument of the Iranian regime’s hidden operation. Over the past four decades it has been linked to dozens of assassination plots in Europe, The Middle East and America.
The IRGC has been implicated in several recent murder‑for‑hire plots targeting high-profile US officials.
Federal prosecutors say that in September 2024, the IRGC asked Farhad Shakeri, an Afghan national living in Iran to assassinate President Trump. Iran has denied this.
Another high‑profile case fell apart in New York: federal prosecutors in March 2025 convicted two Eastern European organized‑crime figures for their involvement in a murder-plot to kill outspoken anti-regime Iranian‑American journalist Masih Alinejad.
According to court documents, the Iranian government paid roughly $500,000 and enlisted a network of operatives to surveil and target Alinejad.
In August 2022, US prosecutors charged Iranian national Shahram Poursafi for arranging a $300,000 payment to have former National Security Adviser John Bolton killed, allegedly in retaliation for the January 2020 US strike that killed IRGC‑QF commander Qasem Soleimani.
