DONALD Trump is right “at the top” of Iran’s chilling assassination hit list, a former White House official has claimed.
John Bolton, who served in Trump’s first administration, made the ominous warning that Iran has an “assassination list” on Sky News’ The World.
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The ex-National Security Adviser warned: “I think Iran’s terror network is really quite extensive in Europe and in the United States.”
He claimed that a number of US government officials were being targeted in relation to the assassination of top Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani in 2020.
Soleimani, who was designated as a terrorist by the United States, had been a highly powerful figure in the brutal Iranian regime.
He commanded the Quds Force, a branch of Iran’s security forces that is responsible for operations outside Iranian territory.
Bolton claimed he is himself on Iran’s hit list, although he made clear that Trump is the number one target.
“President Trump is at the top of their list of their targets,” he said.
The Iranian regime would target people using “Eastern European criminal gangs and others”, Bolton further claimed
The US justice department issued an arrest warrant for Iranian national Shahram Poursafi in 2022 for allegedly plotting Bolton’s assassination.
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“I’m not the only person in addition to Trump,” Bolton added.
“Other former cabinet officials are targets of Iran. This really is unprecedented.
“We’re not being targeted because we’re dissidents from Iran, but because of things that were done carrying out our official duty.”
Bolton went on to say there is a “good argument” that if Iran did succeed in targeting a senior US official, it would be considered an “act of war”.
“That’s really dangerous behaviour,” he warned.
Bolton, a well known foreign policy hawk, served as National Security Adviser in Donald Trump’s first administration.
However, he has since become a vocal critic of the president, and even once floated to prospect of running against him.
He described working in the Trump White House as being like “living inside a pinball machine”.
Bolton had been given a security detail to protect him from hostile threats to his safety, but Trump withdrew it upon his return to office.
“On what one might have thought was a pretty busy inauguration day, President Trump had the time to cancel my secret service protection,” he said.
“It sends a very bad signal to adversaries of United States around the world.”
He added that he has his own arrangements now in place of the secret service.
Bolton said: “It’s going to have an effect decision making in Trump’s own administration if people who had our jobs see what happens to them if you fall out of Trump’s favour.”
Iran has long been linked to numerous terror networks and plots across the Middle East and Europe.