Axios: Iranian plot to assassinate senior officials abroad
Axios: Iranian plot to assassinate senior officials abroad
2026-10-24
Shafaq News – Washington
US intelligence has concluded that Iran has significantly intensified its efforts to target American diplomats and officials in the Middle East and beyond.
The American website Axios reported that those Iranian assassination plans had reached “advanced stages,” according to a memo dated October 23 addressed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The website explained that “in an unclassified memo, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton warned Secretary Rubio that intelligence information regarding Iranian assassination plots should reach a larger number of American individuals than those currently allowed to access it.”
He noted that “the memo does not specify particular targets, countries outside the Middle East region, or the nature of the plans, but it indicates that the intelligence information on which it is based has already been shared with senior officials in the State Department.”
According to Axios, Clayton offered to lower the level of secrecy for as much sensitive intelligence as possible, so that Rubio could share it more widely with individuals who might be at risk.
US officials revealed that this intelligence was one of the reasons that prompted the State Department to reduce its staff at several US embassies across the Middle East, amid growing fears of a wider regional conflict.
US officials fear that the Iranian-backed Houthi militia in Yemen will expand its attacks to other countries in the region, according to the website.
He concluded that “what further complicates the volatile security situation is the possibility of renewed US and Israeli military operations against Iran, something that could happen in the aftermath of the US midterm elections.”
shafaq.com
