Iran still seeking to assassinate Trump, Pompeo to avenge Soleimani

by Jacob Fuller

Chris Lieberman, FISM News

 

A counterterrorism intelligence report released last month suggests that Iran is still seeking retaliation on those responsible for the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, which could include assassination plots against former president Donald Trump and former secretary of state Mike Pompeo.

“The Iranian regime is waging a multipronged campaign — including threats of lethal action, international legal maneuvering, and the issuance of Iranian arrest warrants and sanctions — against select U.S. officials to avenge the death of IRGC-QF Commander Soleimani in January 2020, raising the threat at home and abroad for those Iran views as responsible for the killing,” reads the National Counterterrorism Center report obtained by Yahoo News.

“Since January 2021, Tehran has publicly expressed a willingness to conduct lethal operations inside the United States and has consistently identified former President Donald Trump, former Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, and former CENTCOM Commander General Kenneth McKenzie as among its priority targets for retribution,” the report goes on to say.

“Iran would probably view the killing or prosecution of a U.S. official it considers equivalent in rank and stature to Soleimani or responsible for his death as successful retaliatory actions.”

The report, which was marked as “unclassified,” but also labeled as “for official use only” and “not for public release,” was published June 16, two days after the White House announced plans for President Biden to visit the Middle East.

The president is expected to use the trip, which began on Wednesday, to rally support among America’s Middle Eastern allies against Iran’s nuclear ambitions. On Wednesday, Biden signed a joint pledge with Israel saying both countries would do everything in their power to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

“The only thing worse than the Iran that exists now is an Iran with nuclear weapons,” Biden said Wednesday in an interview broadcast on Israel’s Channel 12. When asked if the U.S. would consider using military force to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, the president responded, “as a last resort, yes,” before adding, “Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon.”

The Biden administration continues to assert that the best way to prevent a nuclear Iran is a return to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a deal signed by President Obama that offered Iran sanction relief in return for curbing its nuclear program.

While Biden may have thought that Iran’s anger over Soleimani’s death would abate over time, allowing the U.S. to reach a deal, those expectations have proven false, leading some to question the efficacy of the ongoing negotiation attempts.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and an expert on Iran, told Yahoo News, “It is baffling how the administration is trying to negotiate a deal with a government that has a river of terror threats against current and former U.S. officials.”

President Trump pulled out of the JCPOA in 2018, claiming that Iran was failing to comply with the terms of the deal. Biden has repeatedly called Trump exiting the JCPOA a mistake and has attempted to negotiate a new deal with Iran, but so far talks have stalled.

Iran has made no secret of its desire to avenge Soleimani’s death after Trump ordered a drone strike against him in January 2020 while the Iranian general was in Iraq. This January, to mark the two-year anniversary of Soleimani’s death, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei shared an animated video that appeared to show a drone strike targeting Trump as he was playing golf at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

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