According to AP News An Iranian agent has been charged with the planned assassination of John Bolton, the US Department of Justice announced on Wednesday.
Shahram Poursafi was identified by US authorities and is wanted by the FBI.
According to CBS, the assassination plans were supposed to have been in retaliation for the death of General Qasem Soleiman.
KILLED BY THE USA: Iranian General Qasem Soleimani. Photo: NTB
sea view
The plot
According to Reuters, Poursafi allegedly asked an American citizen to take photos of Bolton, under the guise that the photos were for an upcoming book.
The American citizen is said to have introduced Poursafi to an informant who could take the photos for a price.
The following month, Poursafi allegedly contacted the informant on an encrypted messaging application and offered the person $250,000, equivalent to almost NOK 2.4 million, to hire someone to “eliminate” Bolton.
The amount was later negotiated to 300,000 dollars, equivalent to 2.85 million Norwegian kroner.
The informant is said to have asked Poursafi to be more specific in his request, Poursafi is said to have said he wanted the “guy” removed. He must have given Bolton’s first and last name.
He later asked the informant to open a cryptocurrency account for payment. He is also said to have told the informant that it did not matter how the murder was carried out, but that Poursafi’s “group” would demand a video as proof.
Calling Iran’s leaders liars
In a statement, Bolton says the following:
– I would like to thank the Ministry of Justice for starting the criminal proceedings today.
He thanks the FBI for discovering and tracking the Iranian regime’s threat to American citizens, and the Secret Service for their protection.
Furthermore, he calls Iran’s leaders liars, terrorists and enemies of the United States.
– Their radical anti-American goals are the same. Their commitments are worthless and their global threat image is growing.
Bolton calls Iran’s nuclear weapons and terrorist activities two sides of the same coin.
Former UN ambassador
Bolton was previously also the US ambassador to the UN.
Bolton is known as a foreign policy hawk. He has served in the Justice Department and the State Department under three Republican presidents, first under Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.
He was then US ambassador to the UN when George W. Bush was president. He pushed for the US invasion of Iraq, and has also advocated bombing Iran and North Korea.
–
