Report: US intelligence memo warns Iran's plot to assassinate officials abroad has entered "advanced stage"

Media obtained a one-page non-classified memorandum submitted to U.S. Secretary of State Rubio on October 23, showing that U.S. intelligence agencies have found that Iran has significantly intensified its planning of attacks targeting American diplomats and officials in the Middle East and other regions, and that multiple lethal assassination plots have advanced to an advanced stage. U.S. officials said this intelligence is one of the reasons the State Department withdrew personnel from multiple U.S. embassies in the Middle East, as the United States is concerned about further expansion of regional conflict. The United States is also concerned that the Iran-backed Houthi armed group in Yemen will extend the scope of attacks from Saudi Arabia to other countries in the region. In the one-page non-classified memorandum obtained by the media, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton proposed to Rubio that this intelligence on Iran's assassination plans needed to be made known to more U.S. personnel, while currently only a limited range of people have permission to view it. The memorandum did not list specific targets, the countries involved outside the Middle East, or details of the attack plans, but stated that the relevant core intelligence had been synchronized to senior State Department officials. Clayton proposed lowering the classification level of this sensitive intelligence as much as possible to facilitate Rubio in broadly notifying personnel at risk of attack.