Shahram Poursafi45, had offered to pay a person in the United States $300,000 to kill Bolton, a former ambassador to the United Nationsdenounced the Justice Department.
The plan was apparently in retaliation for the death of Qasem Soleimani, a prominent figure and commander of the Revolutionary Guards, assassinated in January 2020 in Iraq in an American attack. According to the charges, Poursafi is a member of the Quds Force Guard elite.
The Justice Department said he remains at large, presumably in Iran.
‘Work of fiction’, Iran replies
The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran, Nasser Kananiaccused the United States of making “accusations without providing valid evidence, creating a new work of fiction“.
“The Islamic Republic warns against any action that targets Iranian citizens by resorting to ridiculous accusations“, he added.
The indictment against Poursafi comes as Iran assesses a international nuclear agreement proposed in the Vienna talks to revive the 2015 international pact that seeks to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.
The former president of the United States donald trump it unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2018.
For months, Tehran has held up the deal, demanding that the United States remove its official designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as an organization. sponsor of terrorism.
How was the alleged plot
US court documents indicate that in October 2021, Poursafi, from Iran, contacted an unidentified person on US soil saying he wanted to commission photographs of John Bolton.
That person connected Poursafi with another person, whom the Iranian then asked to kill Bolton for $300,000. He also raised the possibility of a second target that would give the alleged killer a million dollars.
Court documents did not identify that target but, according to the US media outlet Axios, it was the former Secretary of State and former CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
The person with whom Poursafi was in contact was an informant for the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)federal police), according to court documents.
An FBI affidavit describes how the informant was stalling for months as investigators seemed to seek more information about Poursafi, his organization, his superiors, and his apparent network in the United States.
Poursafi was accused of using facilities of interstate commerce in the murder-for-hire commissionwhich carries up to 10 years in prison, and attempting to provide material support to a transnational assassination plotwhich carries a 15-year sentence.
“If Iran attacks any of our citizens, including those who continue to serve the United States or those who previously served, Iran will face serious consequences,” said the current White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivanafter the charges were announced.
Desire for revenge, the motive
In encrypted messages with the informant, Poursafi said the plot was related to Iran’s desire for revenge for the US killing of Qasem Soleimani, according to the affidavit.
Soleimani was head of the Quds Force and personally maintained his network of allies and proxies throughout the region of the Gulf. He was killed on January 3, 2020 in a drone attack on Baghdad.
Since then, Iran has vowed revenge, and the United States has increased security for top current and former officials, including Pompeo, who headed the State Department when Soleimani was killed.
Kanani said Thursday that the Justice Department’s “unsubstantiated claims” were a smokescreen to “avoid being held accountable for the many crimes in which the United States government has been directly implicated, such as cowardly murder.” of Soleimani.
In a statement Wednesday, John Bolton thanked the Justice Department and the FBI and criticized members of Iran’s government as “liars, terrorists and enemies of the United States.”
Bolton, who strongly opposed the 2015 agreement that limits Iran’s nuclear program, urged the president Joe Biden not to restore the nuclear deal.
One of the main “hawks” of US foreign policy, John Bolton 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 son government.
Source: Ambito
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