ALBAWABA - An Iranian citizen was charged Friday by the U.S. Department of Justice with plotting President-elect Donald Trump's murder, purportedly with direct directions from Tehran.
The operation, according to a DOJ statement, was allegedly planned by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as payback for the 2020 U.S. airstrike near Baghdad International Airport that killed General Qassem Soleimani, the head of the IRGC's special Quds Force.
According to a criminal complaint submitted to a federal court in Manhattan, an unidentified IRGC officer instructed an agent—Farhad Shakari—to monitor Trump and create an assassination plot by the end of last September.
According to reports, the command said that the plan must be carried out if at all feasible; if not, it would be put on hold until after the U.S. presidential election. The IRGC officer allegedly thought it may be simpler to carry out the operation if Trump were not re-elected.
According to further information in the complaint, Shakari reportedly told the FBI that he was reluctant to carry out the murder plot within the seven days that the IRGC had originally scheduled. The Justice Department has not yet revealed how much U.S. intelligence was involved in keeping an eye on or foiling the purported scheme.
The Justice Department's revelation continues the escalating hostilities between Washington and Tehran, which have been made worse by Soleimani's murder and the larger dispute over Iran's regional and nuclear ambitions. Federal officials have emphasized their commitment to averting any risks to U.S. national security while continuing their probe into the alleged scheme.
