The US State Department on Thursday announced a $20 million reward for information leading to the arrest of the alleged Iranian mastermind behind a plot to assassinate former White House official John Bolton, AFP reported.
US officials said in August 2022 that they had uncovered a plot by Shahram Poursafi, a member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), to kill Bolton, who served as national security advisor to former President Donald Trump.
US prosecutors said at the time that Poursafi worked to find a US-based person willing to kill Bolton somewhere in the Washington area for $300,000.
Federal prosecutors say Poursafi also spoke of an “additional job” for which he was offering $1 million. It has been revealed that the Iranian assassination plot had also targeted former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Last year, the US imposed sanctions on Poursafi and others it said took part in plots to kill Bolton and others around the world.
The State Department's "Rewards for Justice" program "is offering a reward of up to $20 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction" of Poursafi, a notice said Thursday.
The plan to assassinate was likely set in motion after the US killing of top IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq in January 2020, the Justice Department said at the time.
The plot never made headway because the ostensible assassin became an informant of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Iran has repeatedly vowed to avenge the death of Soleimani. In 2022, an animated video published on the website of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei depicted the assassination of Trump, who ordered the air strike that eliminated Soleimani.