TEHRAN, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- Ambassador of Switzerland to Iran Markus Leitner was summoned on Thursday to Iran's Foreign Ministry after the U.S. issued claims about alleged attempts by Iran and Russia to influence American elections.
According to a report by official news agency IRNA, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said that Leitner was summoned to hear Tehran's protest against the accusation, as the envoy of the country that represents U.S. interests in Iran.
On Wednesday, U.S. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe accused Russia and Iran at a press conference in Washington of seeking to influence certain U.S. voters in the run-up to the Nov. 3 presidential election.
Khatibzadeh rejected such claim, which he described as "repetitive claims and fabricated, clumsy and fraudulent reports by U.S. regime officials."
The spokesman said that it is the U.S. intelligence services who have a "long record" of interferences and turmoil fueling during other countries' elections.
It is not far-fetched to think, Khatibzadeh said, that the designers of such "childish scenarios" seek to divert public attention in the framework of some "fishy machinations" in the run-up to the vote. Enditem
