The US is offering a $20 million (£15 million) reward for information that leads to the arrest of an Iranian man accused of conspiring to assassinate Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor, John Bolton.
Shahram Poursafi, a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), is accused of attempting to hire criminals in the United States to kill Mr Bolton, an outspoken Iran critic, in exchange for $300,000.
The prize offer comes the same week that Trump said he had been briefed by US intelligence about an alleged Iranian assassination plot targeting him.
Iran has repeatedly denied planning any conspiracies to assassinate Trump officials or influence with US politics.
According to officials, between October 2021 and April 2022, Mr Poursafi attempted to engage “criminal elements within the United States” to murder Mr Bolton in Washington, D.C. or Maryland.
According to the State Department, one of the potential assassins he contacted worked as a confidential source for US investigators.
Mr Poursafi allegedly promised the person that after carrying out the kill on Bolton, “he would have a second assassination job for him”.
According to sources, his purported reason was vengeance against the United States for assassinating Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, which Trump ordered while in the White House.
In 2022, the US Department of Justice indicted Mr Poursafi with an alleged murder conspiracy. He remains at large, and officials believe he is not in the United States.
In an interview with NBC News last week, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Javad Zarif disputed allegations that his administration intended to kill Iranian dissidents abroad.
“We do not assassinate people, but the fact of the matter is – they assassinated a revered Iranian general,” he said.
Mr Bolton, speaking to NBC on Thursday, said that the U.S. should be “more proactive” about the Iranian threats and not let it slide.
“When they come after us, government officials, current and former, for doing their job, really, that’s an attack on the United States government itself,” said Mr Bolton.
“I don’t think staying in a passive mode about it is the best way to go. We know that this is more than idle speculation in Tehran.”
Earlier this week, the Trump campaign stated that it had gotten a briefing from US intelligence on Iranian plots to kill former President Donald Trump.
The US Director of National Intelligence acknowledged the briefing but declined to comment on specific issues.
Trump wrote on the social media platform X, which was previously known as Twitter, that Iran poses “significant threats to my life.”
“Moves were already made by Iran that didn’t work out, but they will try again.”
US authorities have found no evidence that Iran was involved in either of Trump’s two recent assassination attempts, at a rally in Pennsylvania or his Florida golf resort.
The FBI and US intelligence agencies believe that Iranian hackers obtained and attempted to share material on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign to “stoke discord” and erode trust in US institutions ahead of the November election.
