Pakistani arrested in alleged Iran plot to kill U.S. official

NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — A Pakistani man with ties to Iran has been arrested for allegedly plotting to assassinate a US official in retaliation for the US killing of Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Asif Raza Merchant, 46, allegedly sought to hire a hitman to assassinate a politician or a US government official in the US, the department said in a statement.

“For years, the Justice Department has been working aggressively to counter Iran’s brazen and unrelenting efforts to retaliate against American public officials for the killing of Iranian General Soleimani,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said.

Soleimani, the architect of Iran’s foreign military operations, was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020. Iranian officials have repeatedly vowed to take “revenge” for the killing.

“The Justice Department will spare no resource to disrupt and hold accountable those who would seek to carry out Iran’s lethal plotting against American citizens,” Garland said.

The intended victim was not identified but the attorney general said no evidence has emerged to link Merchant with the 13 July assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wary said the Pakistani national had “close ties to Iran” and that the alleged murder-for-hire plot was “straight out of the Iranian playbook.”

Another FBI official said the assassins Merchant allegedly tried to hire were in fact undercover FBI agents.