The United States has charged an Iranian man with plotting to assassinate Donald Trump. The news was reported by Reuters on Saturday. However, according to a BBC report, the accused 51-year-old Farhad Shakeri is an Afghan citizen. Iran recruited him.

Farhad was tasked with "providing a plan" to kill Trump, the Justice Department alleged on Friday.

It added that the accused has not been arrested so far and is believed to be in Iran.

British news agency BBC gave this news in a report on Saturday (November 9).

In a criminal indictment filed in Manhattan court, prosecutors allege that an Iranian Revolutionary Guard officer ordered Shakeri in September to conduct surveillance on Trump and plan to assassinate him, the report said.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that the Department of Justice has indicted a man who was allegedly commissioned by the Iranian government to assassinate and conspire against US President-elect Donald Trump.

According to prosecutors, Shakeri was tasked with killing Trump by October 7. But Shakeri told law enforcement that he didn't want to plan to kill Trump within a certain time frame, so Iran's Revolutionary Guard officials scrapped the plan.

Shakeri said the Iranian government later told him it would be easier to try to kill Trump after the election, because they believed Trump would lose the vote.

Prosecutors described Shakeri as an Afghan national who came to the United States as a child. He was finally sent back in 2008 after spending 14 years in prison for robbery.