The US Justice Department announced charges against an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps member after revealing that it had discovered an Iranian plot to assassinate former White House National Security Advisor John Bolton.
According to the Justice Department, 45-year-old Shahram Poursafi, also known as Mehdi Rezayi, offered $300,000 to kill former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton.
According to the Justice Department, the plan was likely devised in retaliation for the US assassination of top Guard commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq in January 2020.
The allegation comes as Iran considers a proposed agreement in Vienna to resurrect the 2015 agreement aimed at preventing Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.
For months, Tehran has stalled the agreement by demanding that the US withdraw its official designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist sponsor.
The US Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen said that the assassination attempt is not the first one in the history of America. “This is not the first time we have discovered Iranian plots to exact revenge against individuals on US soil,”.
According to the charges, Poursafi began attempting to arrange Bolton’s murder in October 2021, when he contacted an unidentified person in the United States online, initially claiming he wanted to commission photographs of Bolton.
