Shakeri, an Afghan national living in Iran, told the FBI that a contact in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed him last September to set aside other work he was doing and assemble a plan within seven days to surveil and ultimately kill Trump, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan.

President Trump’s desire to engage in negotiations is a turnabout from his first term, when he often derided former President Barack Obama for agreeing to a nuclear deal with Iran.