Iran has ramped up efforts to target US personnel, and lethal plots by Tehran against American citizens have reached “advanced stages”, a senior intelligence official in the Trump administration warned in a memo seen by Reuters.
The alert from Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton came after Washington scaled back staffing at its mission in Saudi Arabia earlier this week in response to intensified attacks by Iranallied Houthi forces.
Those attacks on one front of the nearly eight-month-old regional conflict triggered by the Iran war have coincided with a rise in attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
Earlier this month, sources said Iran was preparing a more forceful response if the United States resumes largescale military attacks on its territory.
“Specifically, through various channels, we have received intelligence that Iran has substantially increased efforts to target US personnel,” Clayton wrote to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a message dated October 23. “The lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against US citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries,” he added.
The State Department last week ordered non-emergency government employees and their family members to leave US diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia and planned to withdraw family members from a number of other missions in the region.
Travel advisory On October 24, the US State Department updated travel advisories for more than a dozen countries across the Gulf and Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Israel, citing an increased threat from Iran-aligned Houthis.
“The threat of Houthi attacks and of Iranian terror plots targeting US officials are informing our decisions on staffing adjustments for embassies on RO Status in the region,” the official said.
The Iran war is a week away from entering its ninth month and has significantly weighed on the approval ratings of US President Donald Trump ahead of midterm elections on November 3.
‘Open to diplomacy’
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, said Tehran has not closed the window of diplomacy and messages are being passed to the US via intermediaries.
He said the US appears to persist in unilateral demands and that Trump and US officials repeatedly use the phrase “complete surrender,” which Baghaei said no Iranian accepts.
Ambassador Reza Amiri Moghadam said that Iran recently conveyed through Pakistan that it was prepared to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if Washington lifted its naval blockade, but accused US President Donald Trump of rejecting the proposal by insisting the blockade of Iranian ports would continue.
Asked if he planned to launch an attack on Iran, Trump said on October 25, “No. There will not be a strike today.”
