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UPDATED: In a story that seems ripped from the pages of my forthcoming novel, The Tehran Initiative, the U.S. government has announced that an Iranian terrorist plot against the United States was foiled by federal agents.

“FBI and DEA agents have disrupted a plot to commit a ‘significant terrorist act in the United States’ tied to Iran, federal officials told ABC News today. The officials said the plot included the assassination of the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, Adel Al-Jubeir, with a bomb and subsequent bomb attacks on the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington, D.C. Bombings of the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Buenos Aires, Argentina, were also discussed, according to the U.S. officials.”

FBI Director Robert Mueller told reporters: “Though it reads like the pages of a Hollywood script, the impact would have been very real and many lives would have been lost.”

Thank God the FBI was able to thwart this Iranian plot to attack Americans, Arabs and Israelis in Washington, D.C. — but imagine how much more serious this scenario would have been if Iran had nuclear weapons. The Iranians are feverishly trying to build nuclear weapons. A new U.N. report suggests they are making serious progress. Yet the Obama administration isn’t taking decisive action to neutralize the Iranian nuclear threat and now the White House is publicly pressuring Israel not to launch a preemptive military strike against Iran.

Latest headlines:

• WSJ: Iran’s Terror Plot — An assassination attempt on U.S. soil is a sobering wake up call
• Reuters: Biden says Iran will be held accountable for plot
• Washington Post: Alleged Iranian plot described as “brazen” and unusually “bold”
• U.K. Daily Mail: Iranian plot to bomb Israeli and Saudi embassies
• NYT: Actual copy of the federal criminal complaint
• Public Intelligence: PDF copy of the criminal complaint
• Fox News: Some Washington leaders call Iran plot an “act of war”

The GOP candidates should be pressed to answer the following questions:What would you do to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them? Would you seriously consider a U.S. preemptive strike against Iran, or support an Israeli first strike, if economic sanctions don’t work? The American people have a right to know how we will be protected from the growing Iranian threat. President Obama also needs to be pressed to give the American people more details on how he is going to stop the Iranian threat, but the dangers are growing.

A new bipartisan poll by Democrat Pat Caddell and Republican John McLaughlin released last month found that 63% of Americans regard Iran as the top threat facing the U.S. (ahead of China and North Korea), and 80% believe if Iran gets nuclear weapons they will give them to terrorists to attack the U.S. and Israel.

This is precisely the point I’m trying to making in my forthcoming political thriller, The Tehran Initative. The Iranian nuclear threat is growing, and Washington isn’t doing nearly enough to protect us. The novel opens with an Iranian terrorist attack on American, Arab and Israeli leaders in the U.S.. The plot then leads to an American White House trying to pressure Israel not to launch a preemptive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. But while my novel is fiction, the premise is all too real at the moment.

Please continue to pray for the safety of our country. Let us thank the Lord that the FBI thwarted this Iranian plot, and let’s press our leaders to tell us exactly what they are going to do to neutralize the Iranian terror and nuclear threats.  Developing….