Member of Iranian elite forces charged over plot to murder ex-Trump adviser John Bolton. (AP)

Iranian charged over ex-Trump adviser plot

The US has charged member of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps with plotting to murder John Bolton, a national security adviser to former President Donald Trump.

The Justice Department alleged on Wednesday that Shahram Poursafi, also known as Mehdi Rezayi, 45, of Tehran, was likely motivated to kill Bolton in retaliation for the death of Qassem Soleimani, a commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps killed in a US drone strike in January 2020.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Iran does not have an extradition treaty with the United States, and Poursafi remains at large. The FBI on Wednesday released a most-wanted poster.

Washington does not believe the charges should affect talks with Tehran on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal under which Iran curbed its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief, a US official said on condition of anonymity.

However, it was not clear how the IRGC, a powerful political faction in Iran which controls a business empire as well as elite armed and intelligence forces that Washington accuses of a global terrorist campaign, might react to the charges.

When the informant asked Poursafi to be more specific in his request, he said he wanted “the guy” purged and provided Bolton’s first and last name, according to a sworn statement in support of the complaint.

Read the article by Srah N Lynch in The Canberra Times.