The United States Department of Justice has accused Iran of plotting the assassination of President-elect Donald Trump.
“The charges announced today expose Iran’s continued brazen attempts to target US citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
During the FBI’s investigation into another case, a 51-year-old man from Iran with Afghan citizenship said that a few weeks before the US presidential election, he had been instructed by Iran to present and implement a plan to assassinate Trump.
The investigators consider the statements to be credible.
Also Read:
- FG plans to establish climate division in women affairs ministry
- Lagos, Earthcare partner on abattoir waste management
- Atiku speaks on arrest, detention of Dele Farotimi
- Ekiti court remands Dele Farotimi for alleged defamation
- Looking beyond CBN’s cocktail of policies to 2025, by Toni Kan
A few weeks ago, Trump’s campaign team announced that it had been informed by the US Secret Service about real and concrete threats from Iran to assassinate him.
The US judiciary has brought charges against the 51-year-old and two other men also accused of plotting to assassinate an Iranian dissident.
Arrest warrants have been issued for the men.
“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” warned Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“We will not stand for the Iranian regime’s attempts to endanger the American people and America’s national security,” Gerland insisted.
In his first term as US president, Trump withdrew from the nuclear agreement with Iran, imposed new sanctions against the country, and classified the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organisation.
In 2020, the US military killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Trump’s orders.
dpa/NAN.