FBI warns about Iranian spy allegedly plotting to kill US officials

The FBI is hunting for an alleged Iranian spy it believes is involved in plots to kill current and former US government officials.

The agency accuses Majid Farahani, 42, of plotting revenge for the killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani.

Soleimani, commander of Iran's Quds force, was assassinated in a US drone attack in Iraq in January 2020.

The FBI says Mr Farahani has acted on behalf of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence.

In a notice posted on Friday, the FBI said it wanted Majid Dastjani Farahani for questioning in connection with the recruitment of individuals for operations in the US.

Officials say Mr Farahani travels between Iran and Venezuela and has also recruited allies for "surveillance activities focused on religious sites, businesses, and other facilities" in the US.

In December 2023, Mr Farahani and another alleged intelligence official were sanctioned by the US Treasury.

The BBC has contacted Iranian officials in Washington and New York for comment.

Iranian officials have vowed revenge for the killing of Soleimani, who was widely seen as the second-most powerful person in Iran at the time of his death. He was killed at Baghdad airport along with several other Iranians on the orders of then-President Donald Trump.

The Quds force that Soleimani led is a branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps which specialises in unconventional warfare and military intelligence.

It operates outside Iran and supports groups including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen. The US considers the Quds force a terrorist organisation.

At the time of the drone strike in Iraq, Mr Trump said the general was "directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of millions of people".

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responded by saying "severe revenge awaits the criminals" who carried out the attack.

As a result of Iranian threats, the US government has provided security details for former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Mr Trump's special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook. The security measures have continued under President Joe Biden's administration, according to the Associated Press.

Mr Pompeo was reportedly targeted in an Iranian assassination plot along with Mr Trump's national security adviser John Bolton.

In August 2022, the Department of Justice charged suspected Iranian spy, Shahram Poursafi, with plotting to kill Mr Bolton.

Court filings made reference to a "second target" which was Mr Pompeo, according to the BBC's US partner CBS News.

In Iran earlier this year, 84 people died in a bomb attack on crowds commemorating the anniversary of Soleimani's assassination in Kerman in southern Iran.

Iran initially alleged that Israel and the US were behind the attacks, before the Islamic State group claimed responsibility.