US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Thursday said Washington hasn’t held “any discussions” with Islamabad about Pakistani national Asif Merchant’s indictment over his alleged involvement in an Iranian plot to assassinate US politicians and government officials.
Merchant, 46, sought to recruit people in the United States to carry out the plot in retaliation for the US killing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ top commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020, according to a criminal complaint.
Prosecutors allege that Merchant spent time in Iran before travelling to the US and was charged with murder for hire in federal court in New York’s Brooklyn borough. A federal judge ordered him detained on July 16, according to court records. He was charged by the Department of Justice (DOJ), according to a statement issued on Tuesday.
During a weekly press briefing on Thursday, Miller was asked whether the US has had any conversations with Pakistani authorities regarding Merchant’s indictment.
“I don’t have any discussions to speak to today, but we have been clear that the United States will continue to do what is necessary to protect its people, including foreign officials, from threats emanating from Iran,” Miller responded.
“That continues to be the case and beyond that, it’s really a matter that I should leave to the justice department.”
The spokesperson did not comment on the issue further, saying it was “an ongoing legal matter that is the subject of a DOJ indictment”.
Asked about his understanding of the charges, Miller said, “I would defer to the Justice Department to speak to an indictment returned by a grand jury.”
US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in an August 6 statement that the DOJ had been working aggressively to counter “Iran’s brazen and unrelenting efforts to retaliate” against American public officials for the killing of Iranian General Soleimani.
FBI investigators believe that former president Donald Trump, who approved the drone strike on Soleimani, and other current and former US government officials were the intended targets of the plot, CNN earlier reported, citing a US official.
Court documents do not name the alleged targets of the plot. However, Merchant told a law enforcement informant that there would be “security all around” one target, according to the criminal complaint.
A 20-year-old gunman wounded the former Republican president and current White House candidate at a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The gunman opened fire on Trump with an AR-style assault rifle just minutes after he began speaking at the campaign event.
