2 Iranian officials confirm Tehran preparing to target US diplomats ...
Two senior Iranian officials confirm to The New York Times that Tehran is preparing to target US diplomats and personnel.
The report comes days after US national intelligence chief Jay Clayton warned in a memo sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Iran has “substantially increased” its efforts to target Americans in the Middle East and beyond.
The unnamed Iranian officials, one of them a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) tell the Times that the targeting of American officials was considered to be “fair game,” given the number of Iranian officials killed by the US and Israel.
Additionally, a US official tells the newspaper there is evidence that Tehran has operatives in the US who are “not just simply Iranian nationals.”
Clayton’s memo emerged shortly after the State Department announced it is reducing staff at the US embassies in Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Earlier in the week, Washington ordered non-essential US embassy staff and their families to leave Saudi Arabia, following increasing attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis.
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