Iran Says It Thwarted Plot to Kill Khatami

TEHRAN — Iranian Intelligence Ministry agents have arrested members of a group that allegedly was planning to assassinate President Mohammad Khatami and other top officials, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported Thursday.

All 34 members of the group, known as Mahdaviyat, were arrested, the news agency said, quoting a ministry statement. It said 20 of them were released after being interrogated.

The group, which was blamed for a failed assassination attempt in January on Ali Razini, a senior hard-line judge, was planning to assassinate Khatami, former President Hashemi Rafsanjani and former judiciary chief Ayatollah Mohammed Yazdi, IRNA said. The agency did not say when the arrests were made.

“Among its aims and objectives were creating plots to murder and plant bombs in [minority] Sunni areas of the country in order to fan differences and religious strife,” the ministry said in the statement.

The group believes in hastening the reappearance of the Mahdi, a messiah who Shiite Muslims believe will appear briefly to restore righteousness before the end of the world. According to a senior Revolutionary Guards official, members believed that they had to eliminate anyone who somehow stood in the way of the Mahdi’s return.

The group also stole weapons and ammunition from militia bases and created overseas networks to provide logistical and financial support for its campaign, the ministry statement said.

Rafsanjani was president from 1989 to 1997 and remains a powerful figure in Iran as the head of the Council of Expediency, a powerful policymaking body.