A Pakistani man with ties to Iran has been arrested for allegedly plotting to murder a US official in retaliation for the US killing of Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.
Asif Raza Merchant, 46, allegedly planned to hire an assassin to murder a politician or U.S. government official in the United States, the department said in a statement.
“For several years, the Department of Justice has worked aggressively to counter Iran’s brazen and relentless efforts to retaliate against U.S. public officials for the killing of Iranian General Soleimani,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
Soleimani, the architect of Iran’s overseas military operations, was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020. Iranian officials have repeatedly vowed to “avenge” the killing.
“The Department of Justice will spare no effort to stop and hold accountable those who seek to carry out Iran’s deadly plot against American citizens,” Garland said.
The intended victim has not been identified, but the attorney general said no evidence has emerged linking Merchant to the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
FBI Director Christopher Vary said the Pakistani national had “close ties to Iran” and that the alleged assassination plot was “directly part of Iranian strategy.”
Another FBI official said the assassins Merchant allegedly attempted to hire were actually undercover FBI agents.
Merchant was arrested on July 12 while he was planning to leave the country.
In August 2022, the United States accused a member of the Revolutionary Guards of plotting to assassinate former US National Security Advisor John Bolton.
The Justice Department said Shahram Poursafi, who is still at large, had offered $300,000 to a man in the United States to kill Bolton.
Iran has rejected claims that it plotted to assassinate Bolton, calling them “fiction”.
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