Top Saudi intelligence officials, close to Saudi Crown Prince, had a series of meetings last year with a group of businessmen to discuss the assassination of some Iranian enemies of the kingdom, the New York Times reported.
Among their targets were Iran's Qassem Soleimani, chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, who has been at the forefront of Irans advisory efforts in Syria and Iraq against terrorist groups.
The meetings were held at a time when Mohammed bin Salman was asking his advisers to escalate military and intelligence operations outside the kingdom. The recent revelations show the Saudis have mulled over assassinations since the rise of Bin Salman to power, more than a year before the killing of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
That is while, they have painted his death as a rogue killing ordered by Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri who has since been fired, but was present in one of the plot meetings against Iran.