Washington 8 August, 2024 (TDI): The United States has said that it had held no talks with Islamabad regarding Pakistani citizen Asif Merchant’s indictment over his alleged involvement in an Iranian plot to target US politicians and government officials.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller on Thursday noted that Washington has had no discussions with Pakistan. He said that he had no discussions to speak to today but the United States would continue doing what it takes to safeguard its people, including foreign officials, from threats coming from Iran.
The US official refrained from commenting on the issue further saying the matter was legal and subject of a DOJ indictment.
According to the US Department of Justice (DoJ), Merchant, 46, sought to recruit people in US to carry out the plot in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ top commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020.
The prosecutors have allege that Merchant spent time in Iran before traveling to the US and was charged with murder for hire in federal court in New York’s Brooklyn borough.
He was detained on July 16 on the directions of a federal judge. He was charged by the DOJ, according to a statement issued on Tuesday.
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Earlier, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in an August 6 statement, ‘‘The DOJ had been working aggressively to counter Iran’s brazen and unrelenting efforts to retaliate against American public officials for the killing of Soleimani.
Further, the 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. The court documents however do not name the alleged targets of the plot.
