U.S. Charges Pakistani Man With Iran-Backed Plot to Assassinate Government Officials

Latest Developments

The United States charged a Pakistani national with a thwarted Iran-backed plot to assassinate American government officials, the U.S. Justice Department disclosed on August 6. The defendant, 46-year-old Asif Merchant, had hired purported hitmen who were actually undercover U.S. law enforcement officers, according to the U.S. complaint unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn. The complaint did not identify the potential targets.

The plot “is straight out of the Iranian playbook,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said. “A foreign-directed plot to kill a public official, or any U.S. citizen, is a threat to our national security and will be met with the full might and resources of the FBI.” Merchant, who gave the undercover agents $5,000 as an advance payment to execute the scheme, remains in federal custody in New York.

Expert Analysis

“One shouldn’t take solace in botched plots or thwarted assassination attempts. No matter the sloppy tradecraft, Tehran is trying, and persistently, to move from proxies to transnational criminal syndicates in select jurisdictions so as to better mask its hand. That should be setting off alarm bells in Washington that the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism is not deterred.” — Behnam Ben Taleblu, FDD Senior Fellow

“The Islamic Republic regime has spent billions of dollars to establish influence networks and terror cells across the globe, including in the United States. It relies on an alliance of Islamism and global anti-Americanism to execute its plans. The United States needs a comprehensive plan and the political will to monitor and neutralize these networks.” — Saeed Ghasseminejad, FDD Senior Iran and Financial Economics Advisor

Iran Seeks Revenge

The complaint noted that Tehran has pledged to avenge the death of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Qassem Soleimani, whom the United States killed in 2020 at the order of then President Donald Trump. Last month, U.S. authorities disclosed that Iran had been plotting to assassinate Trump. Unrelated to the failed assassination attempt against Trump by gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks on July 13, the alleged plot prompted the Secret Service to provide the Republican nominee with increased protection.

Iran-Backed Assassination Plots in the U.S.

Iran has repeatedly devised plots to assassinate its opponents on U.S. soil. In 2021, U.S. prosecutors charged four alleged Iranian intelligence operatives with plotting to kidnap Brooklyn-based Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad. In January 2023, the Justice Department revealed that the FBI disrupted a second Iranian plot to assassinate Alinejad. IRGC operatives have also threatened former U.S. government officials, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former National Security Advisor John Bolton, and former Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook.

Iran’s Global Assassination Campaign

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the IRGC has conducted numerous assassinations and renditions throughout the world, including in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Pakistan, Turkey, Cyprus, Iraq, India, Azerbaijan, France, Austria, Germany, Iraq, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Thailand, the Philippines, and Iran itself. Their targets included members of anti-regime organizations, journalists, dissidents, and prominent political figures critical of Iran’s regime. According to the State Department, Iran committed as many as 360 targeted assassinations worldwide between 1979 and 2020.