ISLAMABAD: The foreign office said on Wednesday it was in touch with the United States authorities after reports emerged that a Pakistani national with alleged ties to Iran had been charged in the US in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate an American politician or government officials.
The media reported an announcement by the Justice Department that a 46-year-old Pakistani, Asif Merchant, wanted to recruit people in the US to carry out the plot in retaliation for killing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ top commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020.
Soleimani, a key figure in Iran’s military and political influence across the Middle East, particularly in countries like Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen, was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad that was ordered by former American President Donald Trump, which significantly heightened tensions between the two countries.
Pakistan’s foreign office issued a brief statement in response to the queries about the development.
“We have seen the media reports,” the spokesperson, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, said. “We are in touch with the US authorities and await further details. We have also noted the statements by US officials that this is an ongoing investigation.”
“Before giving our formal reaction, we also need to be sure of the antecedents of the individual in question,” she added.
Merchant, who prosecutors allege spent time in Iran before traveling to the United States from Pakistan, was charged with murder for hire in federal court in New York’s Brooklyn borough.
A federal judge ordered him detained on July 17, according to court records.
According to a Reuters report that quoted “a person familiar with the matter,” Trump was discussed as a potential target of the plot, but the scheme was not conceived of as a plot to assassinate the former president.
Earlier, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement the Justice Department remained vigilant against such Iranian plots after Soleimani’s assassination.
“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,” he said.
Court documents do not name the alleged targets of the plot. Merchant told a law enforcement informant that there would be “security all around” one target, according to the criminal complaint.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment further when reached by Reuters.
“We have not received any reports on this matter from the US Government,” the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York was quoted as saying by Reuters. “However, it is evident that the modus operandi in question contradicts the Iranian Government’s policy of legally prosecuting the murderer of General Soleimani.”
Trump, the Republican candidate in the November 5 presidential election, was wounded in an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last month.
The US attorney general said investigators had found no evidence that Merchant had any connection to the shooting, which officials have said was carried out by a lone 20-year-old gunman.
Reuters said law enforcement thwarted Merchant’s plan before any attack was carried out. An individual Merchant contacted in April to help assist with the plot reported his activities to law enforcement and became a confidential informant, according to the complaint.
Merchant told the informant his plans also included stealing documents from one target and organizing protests in the United States, prosecutors alleged.
- With input from Reuters
