US Brings Criminal Charges in Iranian Murder-for-hire Plan Targeting Trump

FILE PHOTO: A view shows a hat in support of Republican Donald Trump, after he won the US presidential election, at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, US, November 6, 2024. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A view shows a hat in support of Republican Donald Trump, after he won the US presidential election, at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, US, November 6, 2024. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
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US Brings Criminal Charges in Iranian Murder-for-hire Plan Targeting Trump

FILE PHOTO: A view shows a hat in support of Republican Donald Trump, after he won the US presidential election, at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, US, November 6, 2024. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A view shows a hat in support of Republican Donald Trump, after he won the US presidential election, at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, US, November 6, 2024. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo

The Justice Department on Friday disclosed an Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill Donald Trump, charging a man who said he had been tasked by a government official before this week's election with planning the assassination of the Republican president-elect.
Investigators were told of the plan to kill Trump by Farhad Shakeri, an accused Iranian government asset who spent time in American prisons for robbery and who authorities say maintains a network of criminal associates enlisted by Tehran for surveillance and murder-for-hire plots, The Associated Press reported.
Shakeri told the FBI that a contact in Iran's Revolutionary Guard instructed him this past September to set aside other work he was doing and assemble a plan within seven days to surveil and ultimately kill Trump, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan.
The official was quoted by Shakeri as saying that “We have already spent a lot of money" and that “money’s not an issue.” Shakeri told investigators the official told him that if he could not put together a plan within the seven-day timeframe, then the plot would be paused until after the election because the official assumed Trump would lose and that it would be easier to kill him then, the complaint said.
Shakeri is at large and remains in Iran. Two other men were arrested on charges that Shakeri recruited them to follow and kill prominent Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad, who has endured multiple Iranian murder-for-hire plots foiled by law enforcement.
“I’m very shocked,” said Alinejad, speaking by telephone to The Associated Press from Berlin, where she was about to attend a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the tearing down of the wall. “This is the third attempt against me and that’s shocking.”
In a post on the social media platform X, she said: "I came to America to practice my First Amendment right to freedom of speech — I don’t want to die. I want to fight against tyranny, and I deserve to be safe. Thank you to law enforcement for protecting me, but I urge the US government to protect the national security of America."
Lawyers for the two other defendants, identified as Jonathan Loadholt and Carlisle Rivera, did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Iran's UN Mission declined to comment.
Shakeri, an Afghan national who immigrated to the US as a child but was later deported after spending 14 years in prison for robbery, also told investigators that he was tasked by his Revolutionary Guard contact with plotting the killings of two Jewish-Americans living in New York and Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka. Officials say he overlapped with Rivera while in prison as well as an unidentified co-conspirator.
The criminal complaint says Shakeri disclosed some of the details of the alleged plots in a series of recorded telephone interviews with FBI agents while in Iran. The stated reason for his cooperation, he told investigators, was to try to get a reduced prison sentence for an associate behind bars in the US.
According to the complaint, though officials determined that some of the information he provided was false, his statements regarding a plot to kill Trump and Iran's willingness to pay large sums of money were determined to be accurate.
The plot, announced by the Justice Department just days after Trump's defeat of Democrat Kamala Harris, is part of what federal officials have described as ongoing efforts by Iran to target US government officials, including Trump, on US soil. Last summer, for instance, the Justice Department charged a Pakistani man with ties to Iran in a murder-for-hire plot targeting American officials.
“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Friday. FBI Director Christopher Wray said the case shows Iran's “continued brazen attempts to target US citizens,” including Trump, “other government leaders and dissidents who criticize the regime in Tehran.”
Iranian operatives also conducted a hack-and-leak operation of emails belonging to Trump campaign associates in what officials have assessed was an effort to interfere in the presidential election and harm Trump's campaign.
Intelligence officials have said Iran opposed Trump’s reelection, seeing him as more likely to increase tension between Washington and Tehran. Trump’s administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an act that prompted Iran’s leaders to vow revenge.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said the president-elect was aware of the assassination plot and nothing will deter him “from returning to the White House and restoring peace around the world.”



Western Countries Urge Iran to Immediately Dispose of its Highly Enriched Stockpile

IAEA head Rafael Grossi
IAEA head Rafael Grossi
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Western Countries Urge Iran to Immediately Dispose of its Highly Enriched Stockpile

IAEA head Rafael Grossi
IAEA head Rafael Grossi

While the United Kingdom, France and Germany on Thursday urged Iran to immediately dispose of its stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60 %, the UN atomic watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution ordering Tehran to urgently improve cooperation with the Agency.

In a joint statement to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors on Iran’s implementation of its nuclear commitments under the JCPoA, France, Germany and the United Kingdom on Thursday called on Iran to halt and reverse its nuclear escalation and refrain from making threats to produce nuclear weapons.

The three countries asked Tehran to return to the limits imposed by the JCPoA, in particular those regarding enrichment.

They said Iran should allow the Agency to install surveillance and monitoring equipment where requested, re-implement and swiftly ratify its Additional Protocol and fully reverse its September 2023 decision to withdraw the designations of experienced inspectors.

On Thursday, the UN atomic watchdog’s 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution again ordering Iran to urgently improve cooperation with the Agency and requesting a “comprehensive” report aimed at pressuring Iran into fresh nuclear talks.

The resolution was proposed by Britain, France, Germany and the United States.

Seen by AFP, it says it is “essential and urgent” for Iran to “act to fulfil its legal obligations.”

The text also calls on Tehran to provide “technically credible explanations” for the presence of uranium particles found at two undeclared locations in Iran.

Moreover, Western powers are asking for a “comprehensive report” to be issued by the IAEA on Iran's nuclear efforts “at the latest” by spring 2025.

No Peaceful Purpose

Meanwhile, Washington's delegation to the Board of Governors said in a press release that “Iran has already amassed a substantial stockpile of highly enriched uranium for which it has no credible peaceful purpose.”

It noted that if Iran is interested in demonstrating the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program, it should do much more than take easily reversible steps.

“It should provide greater assurance, including resuming implementation of the Additional Protocol, and provide full transparency regarding centrifuge component production,” the delegation said in a statement.

Since 2021, Tehran has significantly decreased its cooperation with the agency by deactivating surveillance devices to monitor the nuclear programme and barring UN inspectors.

At the same time, Iran has rapidly ramped up its nuclear activities, including by increasing its stockpiles of enriched uranium.

That has heightened fears that Tehran might be seeking to develop a nuclear weapon, which it denies.

The resolution comes just as IAEA head Rafael Grossi returned from a trip to Tehran last week, where he appeared to have made headway.

During the visit, Iran agreed to an IAEA demand to cap its sensitive stock of near weapons-grade uranium enriched up to 60% purity.

“This is a concrete step in the right direction,” Grossi told reporters Wednesday, saying it was “the first time” Iran had made such a commitment since it started breaking away from its obligations under the nuclear deal.

EU Warnings

The European Union on Thursday warned that Iran had deviated from its commitments under the nuclear deal and has sharply increased its stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60%, a level with significant proliferation risks and no credible civilian justification.

In a statement delivered during the IAEA Board of Governors meeting, the EU emphasized that preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons remains a critical security priority.

The EU urged all nations to support the implementation of Resolution 2231, which underpins the IAEA’s monitoring and verification of Iran’s nuclear program.

It then expressed regret over Iran’s failure to return to its nuclear-related JCPOA commitments, which has led to significant nuclear advancements over the past five years.

These actions, the EU noted, have heightened the risk of nuclear proliferation in the region.

In return, Iran warned on Thursday that the resolution tabled by Western countries to censure Iran’s nuclear program at the International Atomic Energy Agency “will weaken and disrupt” interactions between the UN body and Tehran.

“This inappropriate action of the three European countries to issue a resolution against Iran will only weaken and disrupt interactive processes between the agency and Iran,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a statement carried by the foreign ministry.

The Iranian deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs Kazem Gharibabadi said on X on Wednesday that the three European countries were using the IAEA as a “political tool.”