A breath before this year's US presidential election , Microsoft announced that hackers from Russia, China and Iran are targeting the Trump and Biden campaigns . However, Tehran issued its own response on Friday, reacting to Microsoft's allegations and stating that it does not care about the outcome of the November 3 election. Specifically, Microsoft claimed that it has prevented cyberattacks by Russian, Chinese and Iranian hackers targeting staff working for the campaigns of the US President and his Democratic opponent. However, the two opposing camps in this year's elections said that they are aware that they are being targeted by hackers.
The state news agency IRNA reported that Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said the US, which has been interfering in the elections of other countries like Iran for decades, is not in a position to make such absurd and baseless claims. He cited as an example the role of the US Central Intelligence Agency in a 1953 coup that resulted in the overthrow of popular Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, who had called for the nationalization of Iran's oil.
Microsoft said that an Iran-based hacking group called Phosphorus is targeting personal accounts of people associated with the Trump campaign. On the other hand, Khatibzadeh stressed that for Tehran, it doesn't matter who is in the White House. What matters is Washington's commitment to international rights, laws and norms, non-interference in the affairs of others and adherence to commitments.
The long-running dispute between Washington and Tehran has intensified since 2018, when Trump decided to withdraw the United States from a multilateral agreement that limited Iran's nuclear program . Trump also reimposed sanctions on Iran's economy. Hostile relations between the two countries escalated significantly after a US airstrike near Baghdad airport in January that killed top Iranian general Saeed Khatibzadeh.
Furthermore, Iranian officials have repeatedly stated that they do not support Trump or Biden in the 2020 elections, while calling for Washington to return to the 2015 nuclear deal and the lifting of sanctions.
