The US Department of Justice announced on Tuesday that it had thwarted a plot by a Pakistani with ties to Tehran to assassinate US government officials in retaliation for the killing of Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in a US airstrike in Baghdad in 2020.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the department has been working for years to counter Iran's attempts to take revenge on American officials for the assassination of Soleimani, and confirmed that lawsuits have been filed against individuals working for the Iranian government with the aim of killing Americans.

The statement quoted Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Brooklyn, New York, U.S. Attorney Brian Pace as saying that Iranian-linked Pakistani national Asif Merchant was arrested and charged with attempted "murder by contract."

The statement added that Merchant was arrested on July 12 by FBI agents who made him believe they were professional killers, and he tried to hire them to carry out his plan.

"Merchant, who was working for others abroad, is suspected of plotting to kill U.S. government officials on U.S. soil," Attorney General Pace was quoted as saying.

Although he did not specify the individuals targeted in the assassination plot, the attorney general ruled out “any connection” between the accused and the assassination attempt that targeted former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania on July 13.

On that day, rumors spread about an Iranian plot to assassinate Trump in revenge for Soleimani's killing.

The statement confirmed that the accused is "closely linked to Iran" because his wife and children reside in Tehran, noting that he has a second family in Karachi, Pakistan.

Merchant, 46, reportedly traveled frequently to Iran, Syria and Iraq, and allegedly traveled to New York in April to look for hitmen, reportedly paying $5,000 in advance to two potential assassins.

Prosecutors said Merchant's instructions to the men were for the killings to take place in August or September, after he had left the country.

Deny the accusations

In contrast, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman confirmed that she is in contact with Washington and is awaiting additional details regarding the accused's background.

For its part, Iran rejected the US accusations, and the official news agency reported that the permanent mission to the United Nations said in a statement on Wednesday, "We have not received any report in this regard from the US government. But it is clear that this method (carrying out assassinations) contradicts the government's policy of prosecuting the killer of the martyr (Qassem) Soleimani."

The FBI had considered the use of hired killers to be a method used in Iran.

In August 2022, the United States charged a member of the Revolutionary Guard with plotting to assassinate former US National Security Adviser John Bolton. The Justice Department said Shahram Poursavi, who remains at large, offered to pay $300,000 to someone in the United States to kill Bolton.

In contrast, Tehran has rejected allegations that it planned to kill Bolton, describing them as pure "fantasy."