US justice on Wednesday revealed a plot led by a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to assassinate John Bolton, former national security adviser to the White House.
At the head of the plot, a man: Shahram Poursafi, identified as a member of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic of Iran. American justice suspects this 45-year-old man, and using the pseudonym of Mehdi Rezayi, of having offered the payment of 300,000 dollars to individuals in the United States to kill John Bolton, who was also United States ambassador to the UN. According to the US Department of Justice, which charged him in absentia, the aim was apparently to avenge the death of the Iranian general Qassem Soleimanikilled in January 2020 in an American strike.
The plot was revealed to authorities by the person believed to be murdering John Bolton, whose identity has not been revealed. According to the press release, between October 2021 and April 2022, Shahram Poursafi contacted this confidential source using encrypted messaging, giving him instructions to locate, photograph and then kill John Bolton, considered a hawk, even a go-getter. war, on the Iranian dossier. He ordered him to open a cryptocurrency account, then gave him the business address of Donald Trump’s former adviser, before urging him to put the plan into action before the first anniversary of Soleimani’s death.
Shahram Poursafi faces up to 25 years in prison in the United States
Qassem Soleimani, the powerful Iranian general, architect of Iranian strategy in the Middle East, was the head of the Quds Force, the unit in charge of external operations within the Revolutionary Guards. He was killed on January 3, 2020 in a drone strike in Baghdad. The anniversary date passed, Shahram Poursafi continued to push the confidential source to kill John Bolton, promising him another million dollar contract if the first operation was successful.
The FBI has published a wanted notice for Poursafi with several photos, two of which show him wearing the Revolutionary Guard uniform. ” During their discussions, the confidential source repeatedly referred to Poursafi as being linked to the Quds Force. Poursafi never denied “, noted the American justice. If arrested, which is unlikely as he appears to be in Iran, Shahram Poursafi faces up to 25 years in prison in the United States.
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(With AFP)