Free Republic

The Justice Department has charged a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate former Trump national security adviser John Bolton, accusing the man of attempting to pay individuals $300,000 to kill Bolton in D.C. or Maryland. The suspect, Shahram Poursafi, 45, remains at large abroad, the Justice Department said. If found and convicted, he would face up to 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000 for the use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, and up to 15 years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to...

Both CNN and the Washington Post reported yesterday that the Iranian regime is plotting to kill President Trump. Jewish World Review has posted the Washington Post story in accessible form here. Intelligence concerning the plot derives from a human source and is apparently unrelated to the attempted assassination of Trump over the weekend.NRO’s Jimmy Quinn quotes Rich Goldberg’s tweet on the rationale for such an operation: “Donald Trump is an existential threat to the Islamic Republic of Iran. The regime knows maximum pressure will return.”The incompetence of the Secret Service presents something of a national security crisis. The Post drily...

In November 2020, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hu Chun Ying, along with the foreign ministers of the three European member states, said that “The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) alone does not solve all the problems and negotiations and multilateral talks should take place in the Middle East.” The Iranian regime did not welcome the announcement. Over the past year, the Islamic Republic leaders have used all their resources to downgrade and neutralize the United States’ policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran. The regime in Iran rushed to quickly implement a 25-year strategic pact between Iran and China...

Speculation about the possibility of a U.S attack on Iran has reached a fever pitch as President Donald Trump’s administration winds down. Far from signaling the inevitability of an attack, the partisan panic is a last hurrah for those opposed to Trump’s “maximum pressure” in favor of a more incentives-based outreach. Warnings of war are the gift that keeps on giving for a broad progressive array of organizations that fundraise off the scenario. They make for good press and national security clickbait, but there is little indication that Trump will attack Iran anytime soon.