U.S. received Iran’s written assurance it was not actively trying to assassinate Trump

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

U.S. received Iran’s written assurance it was not actively trying to ************ Trump

The U.S. received written assurance from Iran before the presidential election that its leadership was not actively trying to ************ President-elect Donald Trump, CBS News confirmed, according to a source with direct knowledge of the correspondence. The message arrived after the White House in September affirmed that ******** a former U.S. president or former U.S. official would be seen by the Biden administration as an act of war. 

“We consider this a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority, and we strongly condemn Iran for these brazen threats,” National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement in September.

Iran said in its message, which was conveyed by a third party, that it understood this premise.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

first reported Iran’s message to the U.S. 

The Justice Department is currently prosecuting at least two individuals alleged to have been part of *******-for-hire plots to ***** Trump while he was still a candidate. One operative working for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told federal investigators that he was tasked in September with “surveilling, and, ultimately, assassinating” Trump, according to court records unsealed last week. 

Prosecutors said Farhad Shakeri, who is believed to be residing in Iran, told investigators in a phone interview that unnamed IRGC officials pushed him to plan an ******* against Trump to take place in October. If the plan could not come together in time, the Iranian officials directed Shakeri to delay the plot until after the election because the official “assessed that [Trump] would lose the election,” the charging documents said. 

In early August, a Pakistani national with alleged ties to Iran was arrested and charged with plotting a *******-for-hire scheme targeting U.S. government officials and politicians, according to charging documents unsealed Tuesday.

A U.S. official pointed out that Iran did not task its most effective proxy force, Hezbollah, with carrying out these plots. This official described Iran’s approach to date as “nice if it works. If it doesn’t, then it’s not a problem.” 

In response to inquiries suggesting that “Iran told U.S. it wouldn’t try to ***** Trump”, the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran said it would not comment on official messages between two countries. 

The mission said in a statement, “The Islamic Republic of Iran has long declared its commitment to pursuing Martyr Soleimani’s ************** through legal and judicial avenues, while adhering fully to the recognized principles of international law.”

Trump has raised the ire of Iranians for a few reasons. He exited the international Iran nuclear agreement, which had lifted some sanctions in exchange for restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program. He also directed the 2020 airstrike that ******* top Iranian commander Gen. Qasem Soleimani. Since then, some Trump administration officials and military officials received threats from the regime, among them, Robert O’Brien, who was national security adviser during the strike. His predecessor in the job, John Bolton, who was part of the maximum pressure campaign that exerted sanctions pressure on Tehran, has also received threats. 

In 2022, the U.S. intelligence community assessed that Iran would threaten Americans — both directly and via proxy attacks — and was committed to developing networks inside the U.S. Two persistent threat assessments submitted to Congress by the State Department in January 2022 cited a “serious and credible threat” to the lives of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Trump administration Iran envoy Brian *****. The non-public assessments showed that throughout 2021 and again in 2022, the State Department determined that round-the-clock, U.S.-taxpayer-funded diplomatic security details were needed to protect both men. That continues today.

Multiple former officials have spoken to CBS about duty-to-warn notices that they have recently received from the FBI and other agencies regarding the ongoing threat from Iran and Iranian-hired actors, implying the U.S. is taking the threat seriously and not taking the Iranian regime’s assurances at face value.

Robert Legare

contributed to this report.

The Standoff with Iran

More

More

Margaret Brennan

Margaret Brennan is the moderator of CBS News’ “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.” Based in Washington, D.C., Brennan is also the Network’s chief foreign affairs correspondent and a contributing correspondent to 60 Minutes.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#U.S #received #Irans #written #assurance #actively #************ #Trump

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up