Iran Has Significantly Increased Efforts to Target Americans, US Intelligence Chief Warns
Iran has significantly increased its efforts to target Americans in the Middle East and beyond, the US Director of National Intelligence, Jay Clayton, has warned. The American news outlet Axios reported the information on Saturday.
In a memo sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Clayton said, we have intelligence that Iran has significantly increased efforts targeting US personnel. According to the memo, the threat is no longer at the level of a general warning.
The memo, first reported by Axios, said Iranian lethal plotting efforts against US citizens have reached a fairly advanced stage in the Middle East and in several other countries. This assessment has become the main reason for Washington's concern.
The memo came to light shortly after the announcement of staff reductions at US embassies in Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The timing of the two decisions suggests the administration has taken the threat assessment seriously.
Three US officials, speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the decision to reduce staff was taken because of threats from Iran and from the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Earlier this week, in the face of growing Houthi attacks, Washington ordered non-essential staff at US embassies in Saudi Arabia and their families to leave the country. In other words, the staff reduction step was not limited to just four countries.
This month, the Iran-backed group has attacked Saudi Arabia almost every day. Among them, an attack on Riyadh's international airport was one of the deadliest incidents in the country in the past few years.
Clayton proposed in his memo that the classification level of the intelligence be lowered as much as possible, so that Rubio can share it more broadly with State Department staff. The purpose of the proposal is to ensure warnings reach staff on the ground quickly.
According to a New York Times report, US officials say US agencies assess that the threat to Americans in the Middle East and several other countries has reached its highest level since the war began in February.
President Donald Trump and his top aides are receiving regular briefings. A US official told the New York Times that for the past three weeks analysts have been examining intelligence about possible threats to ambassadors and other US officials.
The New York Times report also said that, according to US officials, intelligence suggests Iran may have agents or operatives in the United States, and various locations in Europe may also be on their list of possible targets. As a result, the geographic scope of the threat is thought to extend beyond the Middle East.
However, another official said Tehran's capability to carry out attacks abroad is limited, and Iran's ambitions are much greater than its actual capability. It remains to be seen whether, after this warning, the United States takes any further steps on the security and staffing of its embassies.
