Turin, 24 Oct. (LaPresse) – According to a memo sent yesterday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and obtained by Axios, US intelligence has found that Iran has ‘substantially stepped up’ its efforts to target American diplomats and officials in the Middle East and elsewhere, with plots to assassinate them having reached ‘advanced stages’. According to US officials, this intelligence is one of the reasons why the State Department is reducing staff at several US embassies in the region, amid growing fears of a wider regional conflict. In a one-page memo sent on 23 October, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton warned Rubio that information on Iranian plots to assassinate individuals must be shared with a wider range of US personnel than is currently authorised to receive it. The document does not identify specific targets, countries outside the Middle East or the nature of the plans, but states that the underlying intelligence has already been shared with senior State Department officials. Clayton, Axios notes, offered to declassify as much of the sensitive information as possible so that Rubio could share it more widely with staff potentially at risk.
Iran: Axios reports that, according to US intelligence, Tehran has advanced plans to kill diplomats and officials
Turin, 24 Oct. (LaPresse) – According to a memo sent yesterday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and obtained by Axios, US intelligence has found that Iran has ‘substantially stepped up’ its efforts to target American diplomats and officials in the Middle East and elsewhere, with plots to assassinate them having reached ‘advanced stages’. According to US officials, this intelligence is one of the reasons why the State Department is reducing staff at several US embassies in the region, amid growing fears of a wider regional conflict. In a one-page memo sent on 23 October, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton warned Rubio that information on Iranian plots to assassinate individuals must be shared with a wider range of US personnel than is currently authorised to receive it. The document does not identify specific targets, countries outside the Middle East or the nature of the plans, but states that the underlying intelligence has already been shared with senior State Department officials. Clayton, Axios notes, offered to declassify as much of the sensitive information as possible so that Rubio could share it more widely with staff potentially at risk.