During a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 14, former president Donald Trump was shot and injured in an attempted assassination. It is crucial to remember that the Islamic dictatorship in Iran is actively attempting to kill US nationals on US territory, including the former president and some of his top advisors, even if it is still unknown whether the gunman operated alone or as part of a coordinated operation. The US government must take strong and decisive action against those who are really accountable for these acts of terror, up to and including the regime’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, in order to force the regime to give up terrorism or at the very least deter them from pursuing Americans or others on US territory.

Khamenei’s role in regional threats

Three days following the Butler shooting, US intelligence revealed that it had learned of an Iranian assassination plan in recent weeks. This revelation is said to have prompted the Secret Service to step up security measures for the former president. It’s unknown right now if Iran was directly responsible for this specific murder attempt. However, representatives of the regime, such as Khamenei, the head of the Quds Force (IRGC-QF, the Guard Corps’ foreign operations arm), the commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force (IRGC-AF), and John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, his assistant Brian Hook, and other US citizens, have expressed their unwavering commitment to killing the former president and a number of other US officials. This is a kind of reprisal for the January 3, 2020, American drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, the former head of the IRGC-QF. Ayatollah Khamenei has warned Trump with “punishment in this world” and declared that

“revenge against Soleimani’s killers is certain.”

In reaction to Soleimani’s removal, IRGC commander-in-chief Hossein Salami said that Americans should feel secure in the knowledge that his force will exact retribution on them.

“Revenge against Trump… and those who were directly and indirectly involved in the elimination of Soleimani is definite, serious, and real,”

asserts Salami on behalf of the IRGC.

Diplomatic advantages of sanctions

In the same vein, IRGC-AF commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh has declared that his forces intend to eliminate Trump, Pompeo, former US Central Command chief Gen. Frank McKenzie, and other individuals associated with Soleimani’s murder. A plan for “Severe Revenge” against the United States was authorized by the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Iranian Majlis), which requires the government to provide the IRGC-QF an extra 200 million euros in order to complete the task. These aren’t just empty threats. The frequency and intensity of terrorist attacks by the Iranian dictatorship on American territory have significantly increased since 2020, according to a number of credible sources, including a study released by the Department of Justice. US intelligence revealed in September 2020 that there was an effort by the Iranian regime to kill US ambassador to South Africa, Lana Marks. Tehran was actively planning to assassinate Trump administration officials Mike Pompeo, Brian Hook, and John Bolton in August 2022. Senior IRGC commanders and regime representatives have not tried to hide their intention to assimilate these leaders.

US-Iran relations: The sanctions effect

On January 27, 2023, an unsealed indictment surfaced, revealing that Tehran had colluded with a transnational criminal element to carry out the assassination of Masih Alinejad, a prominent Iranian-American journalist and human rights advocate who had been outspoken in her criticism of the regime’s abuses of human rights. The Islamic Republic had a long history of killing and kidnapping opponents and dissidents living in the United States, even before Soleimani’s removal. There have been several such efforts by the dictatorship to kill US and international nationals on US grounds. A hit man from California was hired by the IRGC-QF in 2009 to kill regime critic Jamshid Sharmahd. It attempted to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, in 2011 when he was eating at the exclusive Georgetown restaurant Cafe Milano. Plans to attack the Israeli Embassy in Washington were also part of the operation.

Global Implications of targeting Khamenei

On August 20, 2018, two Iranian agents surreptitiously observed American Jewish and Israeli institutions and obtained data of US nationals and citizens who belonged to an Iranian opposition organization. Additionally, in July 2021, the dictatorship came up with a scheme to kidnap Masih Alinejad from her Brooklyn home and transport her to Venezuela, with the ultimate objective of returning her to Iran. An attempt on Salman Rushdie, the British author of The Satanic Verses who lives in the United States, was also connected to the Tehran dictatorship. Early accounts stated that the crime was committed by a supporter of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who presumably took action in reaction to his 1989 fatwa (decree) that sentenced Rushdie to death for blasphemy in that book. Hadi Matar, the would-be assassin, was even given a 1,000-square-meter plot of valuable property by the Iranian regime as payment for his services.