Shahram Poursafi, 45, of Tehran, belongs to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The U.S. Justice Department says he tried to arrange the murder of John Bolton, a former national security adviser, and announced the charges on Wednesday, August 10, 2022.
According to the department, Poursafi, who also goes by Mehdi Rezayi, tried to pay $300,000 to people in the United States to carry out the killing in Washington or Maryland. The likely motive was retaliation for the January 2020 death of Qassem Soleimani, the Quds Force commander. Poursafi remains at large.
The counts against him include using interstate commerce facilities for murder-for-hire and material support for a transnational plot to murder.
What officials and Bolton said
“The Justice Department has the solemn duty to defend our citizens from hostile governments who seek to hurt or kill them,” said Matthew G. Olsen, the assistant attorney general who heads the department’s National Security Division. He added: “This is not the first time we have uncovered Iranian plots to exact revenge against individuals on U.S. soil.”
Bolton thanked U.S. authorities for tracking the threat and bringing charges. “While much cannot be said publicly right now, one point is indisputable: Iran’s rulers are liars, terrorists, and enemies of the United States,” he said.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan also issued a statement. Should Iran attack any American, including those who formerly served, he said, “Iran will face severe consequences.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry rejected the case. It warned against any action targeting Iranian citizens “based on fictitious accusations” and said Tehran would rely on international law to defend itself and its people.
The Soleimani backdrop
The charges came more than two and a half years after a U.S. airstrike near Baghdad International Airport killed Soleimani. The Quds Force is a secretive division of the Revolutionary Guard, widely believed to support groups such as Hezbollah. Iran has called the strike a “callous terrorist act.”
Tehran answered with sanctions. In January 2022, days after the second anniversary of the killing, it announced penalties on roughly 50 Americans, among them Bolton, former President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Threats against former officials had already come up in Congress. In April, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that “there is an ongoing threat against American officials, both present and past.”
