At the turn of the 21st century, Iran shifted its focus to targeting key US figures. For example, in 2020, it was reported that former National Security Advisor John Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were targeted by Iranian extremists (https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/member-irans-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps-irgc-charged-plot-murder-former-national).

Those two attempts stem from the Trump administration’s strict implementation of the “maximum pressure” policy against Iran. Recently, US President Donald Trump and the former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Lana Marks have been targeted following the 2020 assassination of former commander of the IRGC Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Qasem_Soleimani).

Furthermore, since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Iranian regime has been implicated in as many as 360 targeted assassinations and dozens of foiled kidnapping and murder plots across 40 countries. Recently, British authorities reported disrupting more than 20 Iran-linked kidnapping and assassination plots on UK soil since 2022 (https://2017-2021.state.gov/irans-assassinations-and-terrorist-activity-abroad/).

Those examples play a significant role in international criminal organizations’ recruitment, as their goal is to deploy operatives globally to kill key political figures. Within the targeting, the significance lies in US-Iran relations: Iran continues to sponsor global terrorism. The continuation of Iranian assassination attempts on global officials underscores the holes in Iranian foreign policy.