Iran foils serial assassination plot against clerics, judges, IRGC members

Iran's intelligence minister has announced that the country has managed to foil a plot aimed at the serial assassination of several Sunni clerics, judges, and members of the country's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

Esmail Khatib made the remarks during a speech in the holy city of Mashhad on Thursday.

The plot, which had been devised for implementation "on September 30," had been hatched towards "fueling ethnic and religious differences" in the country, he said.

"The enemies are after afflicting the country's eastern borders with insecurity," Khatib noted, urging vigilance on the part of Shia and Sunni clerics as well as relevant authorities.

The remarks came after the Intelligence Ministry released a statement, announcing that its agents had managed to frustrate a plot aimed at triggering as many as "30 simultaneous explosions" throughout the capital Tehran.

Twenty-eight terrorists were arrested in connection with the plot, which had sought to target the city's "populous centers," the statement noted.

The explosions in question had sought to send across a false image of the prevalence of insecurity in the country, sow despair and fear across the society, and trigger chaos and protest, the ministry said.

SS