In an unusual assurance to the Biden administration last month, Iran promised it would not assassinate Donald Trump in a secret exchange intended to ease tensions, U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal, according to a Friday report. 

The assurances reportedly came in a written message to the administration on Oct. 14, after the White House in September said it would take any attempt on Trump’s life as a serious national security that would reportedly “be treated as an act of war.”

IRAN DENIES INVOLVEMENT IN TRUMP ASSASSINATION PLOT OUTLINED IN DOJ REPORT: ‘MALICIOUS CONSPIRACY’

The Department of Justice last week outlined allegations levied at Tehran that detailed a plot by an Iranian agent to assassinate the former president from the campaign trail.

The allegations came after a Pakistani man involved in an Iranian murder-for-hire scheme was charged by federal prosecutors in August with plotting to kill Trump.

Fox News Digital could not immediately reach the White House for comment on how it will act following the department’s charges last week.

Iran has long said it would seek revenge for the 2020 killing of its top military commander and chief of Iran’s Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated after then President Trump directed the U.S. military to kill him in Iraq.

Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani (C) attends Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s (not seen) meeting with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in Tehran, Iran on September 18, 2016. (Press Office of Iranian Supreme Leader/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

IRAN DENIES INVOLVEMENT IN TRUMP ASSASSINATION PLOT OUTLINED IN DOJ REPORT: ‘MALICIOUS CONSPIRACY’

Soleimani has since been dubbed a hero and a martyr. 

In response to the news that Iran has since pledged not to assassinate the now president-elect, the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations told Fox News Digital, “We do not issue public statements on the details of official messages exchanged between the two countries.”

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has long declared its commitment to pursuing Martyr Soleimani’s assassination through legal and judicial avenues, while adhering to the recognized principles of international law,” the Mission added. 

Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to speak during an election night event at the Palm Beach Convention Center on November 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida.  (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The White House has not publicly commented on the report, and Fox News Digital could not immediately reach Trump’s transition team for the president-elect’s reaction to it. 

The Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, appeared to dismiss the Department of Justice’s allegations, calling the claims “third-rate comedy” earlier this week.

International Crimes Tribunal asks to complete probe against ex-PM Sheikh Hasina and submit a report by December 17.

More than a dozen Bangladeshi former top government officials arrested after a mass uprising in August have been charged with “enabling massacres” before a special tribunal which also told investigators they have one month to complete their work on former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Dozens of Hasina’s allies were taken into custody since her regime collapsed, accused of involvement in a police crackdown that killed more than 1,000 people during the unrest that led to her removal and exile to India.

Prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam on Monday said the 13 defendants, who included 11 former ministers, a judge and an ex-government secretary, were accused of command responsibility for the deadly crackdown on the student-led protest that toppled the regime.

“We have produced 13 defendants today, including 11 former ministers, a bureaucrat, and a judge,” Islam, the chief prosecutor of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal, told reporters. “They are complicit in enabling massacres by participating in planning, inciting violence, ordering law enforcement officers to shoot on sight, and obstructing efforts to prevent a genocide.”

Hasina, who fled to New Delhi by helicopter on August 5, was also due in court in Dhaka on Monday to face charges of “massacres, killings, and crimes against humanity”, but she remained a fugitive in exile, with prosecutors repeating extradition demands for her.

Golam Mortuza Majumdar, the head judge of the three-member International Crimes Tribunal, set December 17 for investigators to finish their work. The deadline came after prosecutors sought more time for the investigation.

Hasina’s nearly 16-year tenure saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents.

“The crimes that led to mass murders and genocide have occurred over the past 16 years across the country,” said Islam.

The tribunal’s chief prosecutor has already sought help from Interpol through the country’s police chief to arrest Hasina. India is a member of Interpol, but this does not mean New Delhi must hand Hasina over as each country applies their own laws on whether an arrest should be made.

On Sunday, interim leader and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus said his administration will seek her extradition from India – a request that could strain relations with a key regional ally, which maintained close ties with the removed leader throughout her time in power.

Yunus said as many as 3,500 people may have been abducted during Hasina’s “autocratic” rule.

Protests broke out across Bangladesh this summer after college students demanded the abolition of a controversial quota system in government jobs that they said favoured supporters of the governing party. Though Bangladesh’s top court scrapped the quota, the protests soon morphed into a wider call for Hasina’s removal from power.

The government’s response was one of the bloodiest chapters in Bangladesh’s history as security forces beat and fired tear gas and live ammunition on peaceful demonstrators, killing more than 1,000 people in three weeks and arresting thousands.

Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington recently spoke out about American politics and how people need to be aware of the ongoing manipulative tactics used by both parties. 

In an interview with The Sunday Times, editor Jonathan Dean quoted a line from “Gladiator II,” the upcoming Ridley Scott sequel that Washington stars in: “Empires fall, so do emperors.” Dean noted that the phrase felt relevant to the current political landscape after the election. “You know, it’s so easy to stand outside America and say this and that,” Washington said in response. “Turn around, you know? Pick a country. Any one.”

Washington continued, “It’s all politics. All promises unkept. And now with the information age the way it is — if anything — left, right, whatever had better learn how to use those tools to manipulate the people. There was a great line in the first movie I did, [1981’s] ‘Carbon Copy’: ‘Power to the people? Yeah, they had it once — it was called the Stone Age.’”

He added, “We’re all slaves to information now. We really are. We’re all slaves. So whatever you feel about the leaders, like this guy’s crazy or the other one is sane, you’d better realize you’re being manipulated by both sides. Period.” Washington ended the thought by saying, “Yeah. So go to the movies.”

Elsewhere in his interview with The Sunday Times, Washington reflected on his career and the failures and successes that came with it.

“After [1992’s] ‘Malcolm X’ I made some real clunkers. Look them up — I won’t say their names,” Washington said. “They are all in the 1990s. But I was earning. I had responsibilities.”

He also reflected on his acting career in the 2000s, when he worked films like 2000’s “The Hurricane” and 2001’s “Training Day” — the latter of which earned him his second Academy Award.

“So, 2000 …” he pondered. “Well, in life, you learn, earn and then you return — as in give back. So if your life is 90 years long, up until 30 you learn and from 30 to 60 you earn. So in that era I was earning. With a great agent, my career built into making money and so the earning kicked in and then life also kicked in, with bills, four kids and a house.”