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Considering retaliation for the assassination of Iranian military leaders.
The Iranian regime is considering an assassination attempt on the US ambassador to South Africa, two US intelligence sources told Politico. The plans will be in retaliation for the US assassination attempt on powerful Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani earlier this year.
Here you can read more about Iran’s possible revenge options for Soleimani’s assassination.
If Iran chose to go ahead with the alleged assassination plans, it would create enormous pressure on President Donald Trump to retaliate. The already tense level of conflict between the United States and Iran reached new heights after President Trump ordered a drone strike on Soleimani in January.
Intelligence sources inform the Politico website that the assassination plans against US Ambassador Lana Marks (66) in South Africa have been known since last spring, but note that the threat has become more specific in recent weeks.
Acquaintance of Trump
Politico writes that US intelligence is unsure why Ambassador Marks is considered a target for an assassination attempt, as she has little or no ties to Iran. But the intelligence source also informs the website that the Iranians may have included their longtime acquaintance with Trump in the assessment.
Iran is said to have secret operational networks in South Africa, Al Jazeera previously reported.
Marks was sworn in as ambassador to South Africa in October last year. She has no prior foreign policy experience and is a successful handbag designer by profession. She was born in South Africa but has not lived in the country for decades.
However, Marks has an expensive membership in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. Trump and Marks have known each other for two decades.
According to Vogue, such a membership costs $ 200,000. Trump is said to have appointed several Mar-a-Lago members to US ambassadors, according to Vogue. Marks was a personal friend of the late Princess Diana.
A directive from the US intelligence community called “Duty to Warn” (duty to notify) requires US intelligence agencies to notify a potential victim whose intelligence indicates that the person’s life is in danger. Marks is said to have been notified of the danger, according to Politico.
Also read: The Iran-US conflict: – Experts took too much cod liver oil
52 Iranian targets
Many experts claimed that there was an imminent danger of a major war between Iran and the United States in the wake of Soleimai’s assassination. Iran threatened to retaliate, while Trump threatened to retaliate for taking 52 Iranian targets, including Iranian cultural treasures.
Iran launched a rocket attack on a US military base in Iraq after Soleimani’s assassination, first claiming that dozens of Americans had been killed in the attack. Some US soldiers suffered minor injuries, but no one was killed in the attack.
Also read: These are Iran’s possible revenge options
Trump decided not to retaliate against the rocket attack.
“Iran appears to be pulling out, which is good for all parties involved and very good for the world,” Trump said at the time.
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