Iran Targets Barron and Melania Trump, Plots To Assassinate Yair Netanyahu

The Islamic Republic of Iran does not live by Cosa Nostra’s unwritten rule against targeting wives and children. On the contrary, it is openly threatening to kill Barron and Melania Trump and plotting to assassinate the Israeli prime minister’s son, Yair Netanyahu. This week, an Iranian television channel aired a video produced by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps offering a $10 million bounty on Barron Trump’s head. In July the Guard Corps-linked Tasnim News Agency released an AI-generated video titled “Where to Kill Melania.”“Iran’s digitizing and sharing these threats on traditional and social media should not be taken lightly,” a top Tehran watcher at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Behnam Ben Taleblu, tells The New York Sun. “They are casting a wide net beyond proxies to include willing lone-wolves and guns for hire.”Iranian officials vowed to retaliate against the two leaders, President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who launched the war to deprive the regime of nuclear weapons. Mr. Netanyahu told Israel’s Channel 14 last Sunday that “Iran tried to kill one of my sons,” either 35-year-old Yair, and 31-year-old Avner.Yair Netanyahu has mostly been living in South Florida for the last two years. Unlike his younger brother, he is very active on social media, where his political commentary in support of his father and right-wing policies have at times gone off the reservation, forcing the prime minister to distance himself from his son. This week Yair Netanyahu generated headlines when Newsmax reported that the premier’s son was targeted in an Iranian assassination plot. Several Israeli reporters said after the publication that they were aware of the plot for weeks but were banned from airing the story. An Israeli censor is charged with keeping off the air stories that could endanger officials or soldiers. Israeli intelligence officials alerted American authorities to the Iranian plot when Mossad and the Israeli internal security agency, Shabak, first discovered the assasination plan back in December, Newsmax reported Wednesday. It cited an unidentified American law enforcement official. Iranian operatives were already “on the ground” in the Miami area, conducting surveillance of Yair’s residence at Hallandale Beach, near Miami, and following his movements. As the plot was in the final stages, the younger Mr. Netanyahu was advised to depart immediately from Florida to Israel and leave his belongings behind, according to Newsmax. As is the case with Mr. Trump’s family, the Israeli premier and his sons and wife, Sarah, have Shabak protection details with them at all times. Since Israel is in an election year, some of Mr. Netanyahu’s critics are angry that the state provides expensive protection for Yair even though he mostly lives outside of the country. Channel 12 also aired a report doubting the Newsmax story. Meanwhile, Iran has offered a bounty on Mr. Trump’s head several times since he ordered the killing of the IRGC-Quds commander, General Qasem Soleimani, in 2020. Mr. Trump, though, denies secret service protection to several officials in his first term who are similarly threatened and are now forced to pay for protections out of pocket. The Department of Justice charged a Revolutionary Guard operative, Shahram Poursafi, of offering $300,000 to kill a former national security adviser, John Bolton. Other assassination targets of former officials include Vice President Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and White House Iran adviser Brian Hook. The Iranian video offering a $10 million prize to kill Barron Trump, meanwhile, is part of a larger pattern in which Iranians, or foreign criminals hired by the Guard Corps, attempt to kill officials and their families on American soil. “The Secret Service is aware of the video and investigates anything that can be perceived as a threat toward our protectees,” a spokesman for the service, Nate Herring, told Reuters. “Out of concern for operational security, we do not discuss matters of protective intelligence.”Federal agents have discovered at least two assassination plots on American soil against an Iranian-American journalist and activist, Masih Alinejad. Other regime critics have also been threatened in America and abroad. Israeli authorities are telling citizens to exercise extreme caution while traveling abroad, where Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps operatives have threatened to hit Israeli-related and Jewish targets. “Despite the shooting war being over,” Mr. Ben Taleblu says, “the regime is showing that it still intends to settle scores the only way the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism knows how: threats of violence and assassination against leaders, their family members, and their inner circle.”

Iran Targets Barron and Melania Trump, Plots To Assassinate Yair Netanyahu

Iran Targets Barron and Melania Trump, Plots To Assassinate Yair Netanyahu

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