JNN Oct 29th. 2011. Following the anti-Iran Saudi envoy assassination scenario, the US agenda to tighten its grip on the Islamic Republic has taken a new shape and form, a political analyst tells Press TV.

JNN Oct 29th. 2011. Earlier on in the month, the US Justice Department accused Iran of being involved in a plot to assassinate Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Washington Abdel al-Jubeir, with the help of a suspected member of a Mexican drug cartel, Mansour Arabsiar.

Although the US administration has already imposed further sanctions against Iran, “a Republican-controlled congressional committee has recently heard testimony demanding an extensive range of covert operations against the country,” Ismail Salami told Press TV on Thursday.

According to Salami, these covert operations range from cyber attacks to political assassinations.

Several Iranian scientists including Massoud Ali-Mohammadi and Majid Shahriari have been killed since 2007, during the presidency of George W. Bush, when the US Congress agreed to fund a major increase in covert operations against Iran.

The political analyst further pointed to a series of recent statements aimed at Iran.

On Wednesday, at a hearing of two key subcommittees of the House Committee on Homeland Security, retired Army General John Keane said, “We’ve got to put our hand around their throat now. Why don’t we kill them? We kill other people who kill others.”

New York Congressman Peter King also made a bizarre statement regarding the alleged assassination plot.

“So you have the assassination of a foreign ambassador, you have the willingness to kill hundreds of Americans — this is an act of war. I don’t think we can just do business as usual or even carry out sanctions as usual,” King said.

However, California Congresswoman Jackie Speier warned against “reckless actions which may lead to opening another front in the War on Terror,” simply because it would not gain the support of the American people.

According to intelligence officials speaking on condition of anonymity, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was given presidential approval to carry out its covert “black” operations inside Iran. More than USD 400 million was set aside in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush to deteriorate Iran’s Islamic government.

The operations involved the support of opposition groups such as minority Ahwazi Arabs and Baluchis, as well as gathering intelligence on Iran’s nuclear sites, Salami said.

The desperate efforts by the US in its covert operations against Iran have made it clear that Washington does not plan on carrying out a military strike against the country.

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