United States authorities have accused an alleged member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of plotting to assassinate former US National Security Advisor John Bolton, probably in retaliation for the killing Iran’s General Qassem Soleimani in 2020.

The US Department of Justice revealed the charges against Shahram Poursafi, of Tehran, on Wednesday, accusing him of offering an unidentified US-based individual $300,000 to carry out the killing in Washington, DC or neighbouring Maryland.

Bolton, a foreign policy hawk and vocal advocate of regime change in Iran, served as national security adviser under former President Donald Trump, but he left the job before a US drone attack killed Soleimani in Baghdad in January 2020.

“Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, through the Defendant, tried to hatch a brazen plot: assassinate a former US official on US soil in retaliation for US actions,” Matthew Graves, US attorney for Washington, said in a statement.

“Iran and other hostile governments should understand that the US Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners will do everything in our power to thwart their violent plots and bring those responsible to justice.”

Tehran dismissed the US charges as “ridiculous and baseless” later on Wednesday.