Pakistani man charged with US assassination plot

A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran has been charged with a plot to carry out political assassinations in the US, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.

The suspect faces a charge of murder for hire in New York federal court. 

What else do we know about the political assassination plot?

The plot was allegedly made in retaliation to the killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020.

Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, early in 2020. Iranian officials have repeatedly vowed to take "revenge" for the killing.

US broadcaster CNN reported that FBI investigators believed that former President Donald Trump, who ordered the strike that killed Soleimani, and other current and former US government officials were the intended targets of the plot.

The intended victim was not identified in the Justice Department's statement or in court documents.

Prosecutors allege that the suspect, identified as Asif Merchant, spent time in Iran before traveling to the United States.

An FBI official said assassins the man attempted to hire were undercover FBI agents.

Merchant was arrested on July 12 as he planned to leave the country.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said Merchant had "close ties to Iran" and that the plot was "straight out of the Iranian playbook."

Merchant told federal officials he has a wife and children in Iran. He traveled frequently to Iran, Syria and Iraq, the Justice Department said.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said no evidence had emerged linking the suspect with the July 13 assassination attempt against Trump.

Justice Department condemns 'brazen' efforts to retaliate against US

“For years, the Justice Department has been working aggressively to counter Iran’s brazen and unrelenting efforts to retaliate against American public officials for the killing of Iranian General Soleimani," Garland said in a statement.

"The Justice Department will spare no resource to disrupt and hold accountable those who would seek to carry out Iran's lethal plotting against American citizens," he said.

In August 2022, the US charged IRGC member Shahram Poursafi with plotting to assassinate former US National Security Advisor John Bolton. Iran dismissed the indictment as "fiction."

The Justice Department said that Poursafi had offered an individual in the United States $300,000 (€274,500) to kill Bolton.

sdi/rmt (AP, Reuters, AFP)