• Iran’s foreign ministry spox says entire matter was fabricated.
• Israel thanks Mexico for foiling Iran-linked terrorist network.
• Mexico says it received no information on alleged terrorist plot.
  

TEHRAN: Iran on Monday dismissed accusations by the United States that Tehran had attempted to kill the Israeli ambassador in Mexico, describing the claim as “absurd”.

“We found this claim very ridiculous and absurd,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei during a weekly press briefing, adding that it was part of an attempt to destroy Iran´s friendly relations with other countries.

Following Washington’s accusation on Friday of the assassination attempt, Israel’s foreign ministry thanked Mexican authorities “for thwarting a terrorist network directed by Iran”.

But Mexico’s foreign ministry later said it had “received no information” on the alleged plot, and Iran’s embassy in Mexico called it “a great big lie”.

A US official alleged that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force initiated the plot in late 2024 and that it was disrupted earlier this year.

The alleged plot involved recruiting operatives through Iran’s embassy in Venezuela, whose leftist president, Nicolas Maduro, maintains a tactical alliance with Tehran.

“The entire matter was fabricated,” Baqaei said on Monday.

In mid-June, Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran, triggering a 12-day war during which the US briefly joined with strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.

A ceasefire between Iran and Israel has been in place since June 24.

China said Monday it would suspend for one year “special port fees” on US vessels “simultaneously” with Washington’s pause on levies targeting Chinese ships, as a fragile trade truce between the superpowers continues to take shape.

The United States and China have been involved in a volatile trade and tariff war for months, but agreed to walk back some punitive measures after presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump met last month in South Korea.

At one point, duties on both sides had reached prohibitive triple-digit levels, hampering trade between the world’s two largest economies and snarling global supply chains.

The suspension of the port fees, which applied to ships operated by or built in the United States that visited Chinese ports, began at 13:01 on Monday, a transport ministry statement said.

The US shipbuilding industry was dominant after the Second World War but has gradually declined and now accounts for just 0.1 percent of global output.

The sector is now dominated by Asia, with China building nearly half of all ships launched, ahead of South Korea and Japan.

Separately, Beijing said it would suspend sanctions against US subsidiaries of Hanwha Ocean, one of South Korea’s largest shipbuilders.

The year-long suspension of measures against Hanwha, effective from November 10, was linked to the US halting port fees it had levied on Chinese-built and operated ships, China’s commerce ministry said in an online statement.

“In light of this… China has decided to suspend the relevant measures” for one year, the statement said.

China had imposed sanctions on five US subsidiaries of Hanwha in October, accusing them of supporting a US government “Section 301” investigation that found Beijing’s dominance of the shipbuilding industry unreasonable.

Organizations and individuals in China had been banned from cooperating with Hanwha Shipping LLC, Hanwha Philly Shipyard Inc., Hanwha Ocean USA International LLC, Hanwha Shipping Holdings LLC and HS USA Holdings Corp.

A planned probe into whether the Section 301 investigation impacted the “security and development interests” of China’s shipbuilding industry and supply chain had also been shelved for one year, according to the transport ministry.

The suspensions are the latest sign of a thaw in economic ties since the Xi-Trump meeting.

On Wednesday, China said it would extend the suspension of additional tariffs on US goods for one year, keeping them at 10 percent, and suspend some tariffs on soybeans and other US agricultural products.

China also suspended an export ban on gallium, germanium and antimony, metals crucial for modern technology, on Sunday.

Also following talks, Beijing agreed to halt for one-year restrictions on the export of rare earths technology.

Washington in turn agreed to suspend for one-year export restrictions on affiliates of blacklisted foreign companies in which they had at least a 50 percent stake, the Chinese commerce ministry said Wednesday.

• Yoon accused of helping enemy state to provoke military tension.
• S Korea has neither confirmed nor denied flying drones to N Korea.
• Ex-president removed from office by Constitutional Court in April.
  

South Korea’s special prosecutor on Monday indicted former President Yoon Suk Yeol on additional charges of abusing power and aiding an enemy state related to his short-lived imposition of martial law last year.

Yoon attempted to provoke military conflict between South and North Korea in order to declare martial law, a prosecutor’s spokesperson told a briefing, citing evidence found on a military official’s mobile phone that included some words suggesting potential provocations against North Korea, such as “drones” and “surgical strike”.

Yoon was removed from office by the Constitutional Court in April and is on trial for insurrection stemming from his failed martial law declaration. If found guilty, he could be sentenced to death.

Yoon has said consistently that he never intended to impose military rule but declared martial law to sound the alarm on wrongdoings by opposition parties and to protect democracy from “anti-state” elements.

According to the memo, Yoon, former defence minister Kim Yong-hyun, and former military intelligence chief Yeo In-hyung planned to induce a North Korean attack against the South, the spokesperson, Park Ji-young, said.

The trio conspired to create tensions in the country as a justification for Yoon to declare martial law, she said.

Kim and Yeo were also indicted on the same additional charges, the prosecutor said.

The special prosecutor’s team has accused Yoon and his military commanders of ordering a covert drone operation into the North to inflame tensions between the neighbours and justify his martial law decree.

In October last year, North Korea said the South had sent drones to scatter anti-North Korean leaflets over Pyongyang, and published photos of the remains of a crashed South Korean military drone.

Despite intense scrutiny and political pressure, South Korea’s military declined at the time to comment on the suspicion of conducting a drone operation. A defence ministry official on Monday said it had no comment on the matter.

Former defence minister Kim is also on trial on charges related to the martial law declaration.

Yeo has said he deeply regretted not challenging the order from Yoon, according to media reports. The prosecutor’s spokesperson said Yeo was making excuses that did not make sense about the notes discovered on his mobile phone.