US 'won't tolerate' intimidation of journalists, Blinken tells Iranian-American kidnap plot target

The US "won't tolerate" attempts to intimidate or silence journalists in the US, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told an Iranian-American journalist, who was the target of a kidnap plot, on Monday.

The journalist in question, Masih Alinejad, said Blinken had told her in their phone call on Monday evening that the US would hold Iran to account for the plot to kidnap her.

The Justice Department said last week that four Iranian nationals had been charged with attempting to kidnap an American journalist. A fifth person was accused of financing the plot.

The department did not name the journalist targeted at the time, but Alinejad, an Iranian-American living in Brooklyn, said she had been targeted. She is an outspoken critic of the Islamic Republic.

In an interview with CNN last week, Alinejad said she wanted Washington to take a strong stance against Iran after the White House said the kidnap plot would not halt US talks with Tehran on a new nuclear deal.

The US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018. The Biden administration has been engaging in indirect talks with Iran in an attempt to revive the deal.