06/23/2025

A Weakened Iran Could Turn to Assassination and Terrorism to Strike Back

The country is known for slow, deliberate, long-term revenge

The last time the United States carried out a major strike against Iran — killing the leader of the country’s elite Quds Force five years ago — the response from the Islamic republic seemed oddly subdued, at least initially.

Iran fired a flurry of missiles that wounded American troops stationed at military bases in Iraq but fell far short of the vengeance threatened by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for the death of one of his top lieutenants.

It took years, however, for the full dimensions of Iran’s intended campaign of revenge to come into view. In that time, U.S. authorities uncovered and disrupted a series of assassination plots. The targets, according to U.S. officials and court filings, included former National Security Adviser John Bolton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Donald Trump, at the time the former president.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.