Trump administration officials are warning that Iran is preparing attacks against American officials, including inside the United States, according to reporting by The New York Times cited by Israeli media on October 25. The warnings cover possible assassination attempts against diplomats abroad as well as threats on American soil.
One U.S. official said there was evidence that Tehran had operatives inside the country who were not simply Iranian nationals. But the official also cautioned that those operatives often exaggerate what they can do when communicating with Iran. Details of the alleged domestic plots have not been publicly released.
What officials say about the threat inside America
The Times of Israel's Sunday report quoted the U.S. official describing operatives as "not just simply Iranian nationals." The Jerusalem Post separately reported the warning, citing the same New York Times account.
Two senior Iranian officials, including a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, told the Times that Tehran was preparing to target U.S. diplomats and personnel. They described American officials as "fair game" because the United States and Israel had killed Iranian officials and some of their relatives.
Those comments were attributed to unnamed officials. They follow a written warning from Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton to Secretary of State Marco Rubio about Iranian efforts to kill Americans overseas.
The threat of attacks inside the United States has a history. In August 2022, the Justice Department charged IRGC member Shahram Poursafi over an alleged attempt to arrange the murder of former national security adviser John Bolton. Prosecutors said he tried to pay people in the United States $300,000 to carry out the killing in Washington or Maryland, likely in retaliation for the 2020 killing of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani.
An intelligence memo prompts security precautions
Clayton's October 23 memo, obtained by Axios and CBS News, said Iran had substantially increased its efforts to target U.S. personnel. CBS quoted the intelligence chief as writing:
"The lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against U.S. citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries."
The unclassified memo did not name specific targets or countries outside the Middle East, or say when attacks might occur. Clayton said the underlying intelligence had already reached senior State Department officials with the required clearances. He offered to lower the classification of as much information as possible so warnings could reach more potentially exposed personnel. CIA Director John Ratcliffe received a copy.
Washington has already reduced staffing at diplomatic posts. The State Department's Saudi Arabia travel advisory records an October 23 order for non-emergency government employees and their families to leave the kingdom because of safety risks.
Axios also reported staffing reductions at U.S. embassies in the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Qatar and Jordan. Officials cited both Iranian plots and attacks by Iran-backed Houthi forces in explaining the precautions.
New reporting points to a wider military campaign
The Hormuz Letter added another warning in an October 25 post, citing multiple U.S. officials speaking to i24NEWS. It said Washington and Israel were moving toward a joint campaign that could begin in the coming days and extend beyond nuclear, missile and energy sites to ports and other facilities.
That specific timetable and target list remain unconfirmed by a public U.S. or Israeli military announcement. In its own Sunday live coverage, i24NEWS quoted U.S. officials saying Trump was preparing to shift gears against Iran and describing an attack as a question of when, rather than if.
Trump nevertheless told reporters on Sunday that there would be no U.S. strike against Iran that day, according to Associated Press reporting carried by CP24. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said messages were still passing to Washington through intermediaries and that Tehran had not closed the door to diplomacy.