CIA: Iran seeks to assassinate US Ambassador to South Africa – report

An assassination of a US ambassador could undermine Trump in his election campaign or pull him into a new round of conflict.

Iran is weighing an assassination attempt against the US ambassador to South Africa, Politico reported early Monday morning.

Citing multiple US intelligence sources and a CIA global threats document, the report frames the issue as the Islamic Republic’s preferred method for retaliating against US President Donald Trump’s assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani in January.

Although at the time Tehran retaliated by firing missiles on US army bases in Iraq, American casualties were low and most Israeli and US intelligence officials told The Jerusalem Post at the time that there would likely be further retaliation down the road.

An attack now could also serve the purpose of undermining perceptions of US power, just as Washington is trying to realign the Middle East against the ayatollahs with normalization deals between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

The UAE and Bahrain are both ruled by Sunnis who want to work with Israel and the US against Iranian hegemonic plans for the region.

An assassination of a US ambassador could also undermine Trump in his election campaign or pull him into a new round of conflict, just as he is trying to claim that he has put Iran on ice.

Politico said that US officials have been aware of a general threat against Ambassador Lana Marks since the spring.

Source: The Jerusalem Post