U.S. intelligence finds that Iran has “significantly increased” its efforts to target U.S. diplomats and officials in the Middle East and beyond, with deadly plots reaching “advanced stages,” according to an Oct. 23 memo to Secretary of State Marco Rubio obtained by Axios.
Why it’s important: U.S. officials say the intelligence is one reason the State Department is reducing staff at several U.S. embassies in the Middle East, amid growing fears of a broader regional conflict.
- Added to this unstable security environment is the prospect of new American and Israeli military operations against Iran, potentially after the midterm elections.
What they say: “We could do another little Operation Epic Fury, or (the Iranians) would agree to (a deal),” President Trump said at a rally in Florida on Friday.
- “If they’re smart, they’ll just say, ‘Let’s get down to business,’ but I doubt they will because they might not be smart.”
Driving the news: In the unclassified one-page memo obtained by Axios, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton warned Rubio that intelligence on Iranian assassination plots needed to reach more U.S. personnel than are currently authorized to receive it.
- The memo does not identify specific targets, countries outside the Middle East or the nature of the plots, but says the underlying intelligence has already been shared with senior State Department officials.
- Clayton proposed declassifying as much sensitive information as possible so that Rubio could share it more widely with potentially at-risk staff.
State of play: Earlier this week, the State Department ordered family members and nonessential personnel to leave the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh and the consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran.
- The department also ordered reductions in U.S. diplomatic and government staff at embassies in the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Qatar and Jordan on Friday, a U.S. official said.
- “We decided that due to the threat of attacks from the Houthis and Iranian terrorist plots, we needed to reduce our footprint and retain only essential personnel,” the official said.
- CNN first reported the reduction in staffing at the four embassies.
See memo below.
Gn world
