The US Justice Department alleged that Shahram Porsafi, also known as Mehdi Rezai, was induced to kill Trump’s former NSA John Bolton in retaliation for the death of Qasem Soleimani.
The US Justice Department alleged that Shahram Porsafi, also known as Mehdi Rezai, was induced to kill Trump’s former NSA John Bolton in retaliation for the death of Qasem Soleimani.
The United States on Wednesday accused a member of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps of plotting to assassinate former President Donald Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton.
The Justice Department alleged that Shahram Porsafi, 45, of Tehran, was motivated to kill Bolton in retaliation for the death of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qasem Soleimani who was killed in a US drone strike in January. 2020.
Iran dismissed the allegation as “baseless”. According to Iranian media, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said, “Iran strongly warns against any action against Iranian citizens on the pretext of these ridiculous and baseless allegations.”
Iran does not have an extradition treaty with the United States, and Mr. Porsafi remains at large. The FBI released a most wanted poster on Wednesday.
Porsafi’s alleged conspiracy
According to the criminal complaint, Mr. Porsafi only asked a US resident identified as “Personal A” to take photographs of Mr. Bolton, under the guise that the photographs were necessary for an upcoming book. The American resident then introduced Mr. Porsafi to a secret government informant who could take photographs for a price.
Investigators said the following month Porsafi contacted the informant on an encrypted messaging application and offered the man $250,000 to hire someone to “finish” Mr. will be negotiated.
When the informant asked Mr. Porsafi to be more specific in his request, he said he wanted to purge the “man”, and he provided Mr. Bolton’s first and last name, according to an affidavit in support of the complaint. .
He later instructed the informant to open a cryptocurrency account to facilitate payments. In subsequent communications, she reportedly told the informant that it didn’t matter how the murder was committed, but that her “group” would need a video as evidence that the deed was done.
Bolton thanks Department of Justice
In a statement on Twitter on Wednesday, Mr Bolton thanked the Justice Department for taking action.
“While not much can be said publicly right now, one point is undeniable,” he said. “Iran’s rulers are liars, terrorists, and enemies of the United States.”
The State Department did not immediately comment on whether the decision to charge Mr. Porsafi was in any way linked to US diplomacy seeking to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Indirect talks between the United States and Iran took place on Monday with EU officials in Vienna and they said they had laid out a final text to renegotiate the agreement, under which Tehran would negotiate with the US, the European Union and the United Nations. curbed its nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. ,
Mr Trump refused the nuclear deal in 2018 and reinstated harsh US sanctions, nearly a year after Tehran began violating the deal’s nuclear limits and reviving fears that Iran would seek to develop a nuclear weapon. could – an ambition that he rejects.