Iran Plots

Iran has entered "advanced stages" in plots to kill American officials abroad, the United States' top intelligence official warned.

Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton sent that warning to Secretary of State Marco Rubio in an unclassified memo dated Oct. 23, according to the Washington Post and NBC News. Axios first reported the memo. A U.S. official confirmed it was authentic, according to NBC News and HuffPost. "The lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against U.S. citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries," Clayton wrote, according to NBC News. CIA Director John Ratcliffe got a copy too, Raw Story reported.

Specific targets are not named in the memo, nor are countries outside the region or a timeline, HuffPost reported. Clayton told Rubio the intelligence is relevant to more people than are currently cleared to see it, and he offered to downgrade as much of the material as possible so State Department staff could be briefed, according to NBC News. Senior State Department officials have already been briefed on the underlying intelligence, HuffPost reported.

For days, the State Department has been thinning its presence in the region. Earlier in the week, it ordered family members and nonessential staff out of the embassy in Riyadh and the consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran, and placed the Riyadh embassy under "ordered departure" status, according to the Washington Post and HuffPost. Emergency staff only. Then came more cuts. On Friday, it cut staff further at embassies in the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Qatar and Jordan, Raw Story reported. One U.S. official attributed the reductions to "the threat of Houthi attacks and Iranian terror plots," according to Raw Story.

Trump addressed the tension Friday at a rally in Florida. He told the crowd he was weighing new military action against Iran, including what he called "another little Operation Epic Fury," unless Tehran reaches an agreement with Washington, according to NBC News and Israel National News. Military officials have given Trump options that include strikes on tunnel entrances at Iran's Pickaxe Mountain nuclear site and on Kharg Island, the hub for most of Iran's oil exports, according to NBC News. Any new strikes could come after the Nov. 3 midterm elections, Israel National News reported.

Iran's government pushed back on the idea that its posture is tied to American politics. "We don't care about U.S. midterm elections," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, according to NBC News. "We care about our national interests."