Iran’s Plot to Assassinate U.S. Ambassador to South Africa

(New York, N.Y.) – On Sunday, Politico reported about an Iranian plot to assassinate the U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Lana Marks in retaliation for the death of former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force (IRGC-QF) Commander Qassem Soleimani. This scheme by the Iranian regime is just the latest in a series of incidents through the years that have targeted diplomats abroad. Additionally, the use of the Iranian embassy in Pretoria to plan such an operation follows past Iranian practice of using its diplomatic facilities and staff to foment terrorism abroad.

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI)’s report, Iran’s Malign Intelligence Activities, documents the regime’s history of assassinations, the use of embassies as staging grounds for such attacks, as well as the structure of the regime’s intelligence apparatus. Tehran has previously targeted diplomats abroad. For instance, the regime was implicated in a plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States in a crowded restaurant in Washington, D.C., in 2011. That’s not to mention the involvement of Iranians carrying diplomatic passports in the murder of dissident Masoud Molavi Vardanjani in Turkey in 2019.

To read UANI’s report, Iran’s Malign Intelligence Activities, please click here.

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