US President-elect Trump must realize that killing is in the DNA of the Islamic Republic when weighing any deal with Tehran, an outspoken Iranian dissident warned after US authorities released details of a murder-for-hire plot targeting them both.
"I have a message for President Trump now, because he said that he wants to negotiate with the regime. This is the regime. Assassinating and killing is in the DNA of the Islamic Republic," Masih Alinejad told Fox News in an interview.
"I want to fight against this regime, and I want the President of the United States to support my cause and the women of Iran who are facing the same killers every single day," she added.
Earlier on Friday the US Justice Department unsealed murder-for-hire charges against an Afghan national it said was tasked by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with assassinating both Alinejad and Trump.
Alinejad is one of the most visible critics of Iran's theocratic rulers and lives in an undisclosed location in Brooklyn since US law enforcement first uncovered the alleged Iranian plot on her life.
A champion of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement for female empowerment against Islamic headscarf enforcement in Iran, Alinejad has called for the downfall of the ruling system.
In his ultimately triumphant presidential campaign, Trump took a different tack by appearing to rule out seeking regime change despite taking a hard line on Iran as president, killing top military commander Qassem Soleimani and tightening sanctions,
Trump has said he wants to make a deal with Iran and wishes it success but that the United States would not tolerate Tehran acquiring nuclear weapons.
