Iran 'behind US assassination plot'

The US has accused Iranian government agents of plotting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador, immediately using the thwarted plot to step up sanctions and recruit international allies in a bid to further isolate Tehran.

Two men, including a member of Iran’s special foreign actions unit known as the Quds Force, were charged in New York federal court with conspiring to kill the Saudi diplomat to the US, Adel al-Jubeir.

Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old US citizen who also holds an Iranian passport, was charged along with Gholam Shakuri, who authorities said was a Quds Force member and is still at large in Iran.

The Treasury Department listed addresses for Arbabsiar in two Texas cities - the Austin suburb of Round Rock and the Gulf city of Corpus Christi – and prosecutors say he frequently travelled to Mexico for business.

Justice Department officials say the men tried to hire a purported member of a Mexican drug cartel to carry out the assassination with a bomb attack while Mr al-Jubeir dined at his favourite restaurant.

“The idea that they would attempt to go to a Mexican drug cartel to solicit murder-for-hire to kill the Saudi ambassador, nobody could make that up, right?” US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said.

Mrs Clinton was blunt in saying the United States would use the case as leverage with other countries that had been reluctant to apply harsh sanctions or penalties against Iran. She said she and President Barack Obama called world leaders to tell them of the developments.

“This really, in the minds of many diplomats and government officials, crosses a line that Iran needs to be held to account for,” Mrs Clinton said. She said she and Mr Obama wanted to “enlist more countries in working together against what is becoming a clearer and clearer threat” from Iran.

The US criminal complaint said the Iranian plotters hired a would-be assassin in Mexico who was a paid informant for the US Drug Enforcement Administration and told US authorities about their plot, which they codenamed Chevrolet.

FBI director Robert Mueller said many lives could have been lost. But Preet Bharara, the US attorney in Manhattan, said no explosives were actually placed and no-one was in any danger because of the informant’s co-operation with authorities.

Attorney general Eric Holder, appearing at a news conference with Mueller and Bharara, said: “The United States is committed to holding Iran responsible for its actions.”

Shortly afterwards the Treasury Department announced economic penalties against Arbabsiar and four Quds Force officers it says were involved.

Asked whether the plot was blessed by the very top echelons of the Iranian government, Mr Holder said the Justice Department was not making that accusation, but the conspiracy was conceived, sponsored and directed from Tehran.

The US describes the Quds Force as Iran’s primary foreign action arm for supporting terrorists and extremists around the world.

The White House said Mr Obama told Mr al-Jubeir in a phone call that the foiled plot to assassinate him was a “flagrant” violation of US and international law.

Mr al-Jubeir, a commoner educated at University of North Texas and Georgetown, was foreign affairs adviser to Saudi’s King Abdullah when he was crown prince. A month after the September 11 2001 attacks, in which 15 of the 19 Arab hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah sent Mr al-Jubeir to the United States to rebuild Saudi Arabia’s image in America. He was appointed ambassador in 2007.

Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia are the Middle East’s two most powerful countries and have long vied for power and influence across the region. Saudi Arabia and other countries like Bahrain have accused Iran of trying to create dissent in their countries this year, during democracy movements across the region.

The Saudi Embassy said in a statement that it appreciated the US efforts to prevent the crime. “The attempted plot is a despicable violation of international norms, standards and conventions and is not in accord with the principles of humanity,” the statement said.

Alizreza Miryusefi, the press attache at Iran’s mission to the United Nations, said the accusation against Iran was “totally baseless” and that a full statement would be issued shortly.

Members of the US Congress were quick to condemn Iran over the plot. Texas Republican Rep Michael McCaul said if it was sponsored by the Iranian government “this would constitute an act of war not only against the Saudis and Israelis but against the United States as well”.

“This is dangerous new territory for Iran,” said Rep Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.

“It is the latest in a series of aggressive actions – from their nuclear programme to state sponsorship of terrorism, from complicity in killing our soldiers in Iraq to now plotting hostile acts on US soil.”