Over a year prior to the murder of exiled Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, senior Saudi intelligence officials met with various businessmen, including an Israeli, to inquire about the possibility of using private intelligence operatives to assassinate top Iranian officials, The New York Times reported Sunday.
One of the prime targets of the scheme was Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' black-ops arm, the Quds Force, who is considered a sworn enemy of Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh was willing to spend $2 billion on the scheme, with aim of destabilizing Iran's economy and its regime, the report said.
The meetings were organized by Lebanese-American businessman George Nader, a representative of the United Arab Emirates. The paper named the Israeli present at the meeting as Joel Zamel, describing him as an intelligence strategist with "deep ties to his country's intelligence and security agencies."
The plot to assassinate Soleimani and other Iranian military officials was reportedly discussed in Riyadh in March 2017, in a meeting headed by Maj. Gen. Ahmad Asiri, then a close confidant and adviser to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Asiri was fired in the wake of Khashoggi's murder.
Nader reportedly met with the crown prince to discuss the plan prior to arranging meetings with the businessmen and had also pitched the plan to American intelligence officials.
According to the report, Zamel and the other businessmen approached on the issue rejected the Saudi proposal. Nader then linked the Saudis with a British firm he believed would consider the issue favorably.
Nader and are witnesses in the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into alleged irregularities in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.
The New York Times said prosecutors have asked both about their discussions with American and Saudi officials about the Iran proposal, noting that in 2016, a company owned by Zamel pitched the Trump campaign a plan to carry out "social media manipulations."
The paper noted that a spokesman for the Saudi government declined to comment, as did lawyers for both Nader and Zamel.
