USA revealed on Wednesday an Iranian plot to kill John Boltonformer White House National Security Advisor donald trumpand announced charges against a member of the Corps of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard.
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The Justice Department said in a statement that Shahram Poursafi45, also known as Mehdi Rezayi, had offered to pay $300,000 to a person in the United States to kill Bolton, also a former US ambassador to the United Nations during the administration of George W Bush.
Apparently the plan sought to avenge the death of Qasem Soleimaniprominent figure and commander of the Guard, assassinated in January 2020 in Iraq in an American attack.
The plot was revealed to authorities by the person who was supposed to kill Bolton, whose identity was not released.
According to the press release, between October 2021 and April 2022, Poursafi contacted this confidential source via encrypted messages, instructing him to locate, photograph and then kill Bolton.
He ordered him to open a cryptocurrency account, then gave him a Bolton address, before urging him to put the plan in place ahead of the first anniversary of Soleimani’s death.
The powerful Iranian general, the architect of Iran’s strategy in the Middle East, was the head of the Quds Force, the unit in charge of foreign operations within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He was killed on January 3, 2020 in a drone attack in Baghdad.
Past the first anniversary date, Poursafi continued to pressure the confidential source to kill Bolton, promising another million-dollar contract if the first operation was successful.
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI, federal police) published an arrest warrant for Poursafi with several photos, two of which show him wearing the uniform of the Revolutionary Guard.
“During their exchanges, the confidential source repeatedly referred to Poursafi as linked to the Quds Force. Poursafi never denied this,” the US court said.
If arrested, which is unlikely since he appears to be in Iran, Poursafi faces up to 25 years in prison in the United States.
America’s enemies
In a statement, Bolton thanked the Justice Department and the FBI and criticized members of Iran’s government as “liars, terrorists and enemies of the United States.”
In addition, he urged President Joe Biden not to restore the nuclear agreement.
The indictment against Poursafi comes as Iran weighs an international deal proposed at Vienna talks to revive the 2015 pact that seeks to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.
During their exchanges, the confidential source repeatedly referred to Poursafi as linked to the Quds Force. Poursafi never denied it
For months, Tehran has held up the deal, demanding that the United States remove its official designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a sponsoring organization of terrorism.
“This is not the first time we have uncovered Iranian plots to exact revenge on people on American soil and we will work tirelessly to expose and disrupt each such effort,” said US Deputy Attorney General Matthew Olsen.
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Bolton, one of the main “hawks” in US foreign policy and a strong critic of Iran, was national security adviser in the Trump White House from April 2018 to September 2019. Between 2005 and 2006 he was ambassador to the UN of the Bush Jr. government.
Court documents indicate that Bolton was aware of the plot and cooperated with investigators, allowing Poursafi to be sent photographs of him outside his Washington office.
Another official believed to be on Tehran’s hit list was Mike Pompeo, secretary of state when Soleimani was assassinated.
At the time Pompeo, who had previously been director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), said that Soleimani had been planning large-scale attacks on US targets, such as embassies.
AFP
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