Washington is stepping up attempts to isolate Tehran after accusing factions in the Iranian government of a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington on US soil.
The US announced new economic sanctions against five Iranians, including four senior members of the Quds force, the special operations unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, which American officials have implicated in the alleged plot.
Sanctions were already in place but the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said a "very strong message" needed to be sent to the Iranian regime.
She said she and Barack Obama want to "enlist more countries in working together against what is becoming a clearer and clearer threat" from Iran.
The US is discussing with Saudi Arabia and other allies the possibility of taking the matter to the UN security council, according to Reuters, which cited an unnamed western diplomat.
A spokesman for the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, described the allegations as "a fabrication" while Iran's ambassador to the UN has written to the secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, complaining of US "warmongering".
Mohammad Khazaee wrote: "I am writing to you to express our outrage regarding the allegations levelled by the United States officials against the Islamic Republic of Iran on the involvement of my country in an assassination plot targeting a foreign diplomat in Washington."
Even in the US, there was incredulity at the brazen nature of the alleged plot.
But in a sign that relations between Tehran and Washington have soured further, the state department issued a worldwide alert about the supposed threat posed by Tehran to US citizens.
It said: "The US government assesses that this Iranian-backed plan to assassinate the Saudi ambassador may indicate a more aggressive focus by the Iranian government on terrorist activity against diplomats from certain countries, to include possible attacks in the United States."
Manssor Arbabsiar Two men, one an American-Iranian, Manssor Arbabsiar, 56, and Gholam Shakuri, an Iranian, have been charged in New York with the alleged "murder-for-hire" plot to pay a Mexican drug cartel to help assassinate Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi ambassador and close confidant of the Saudi king.
The US justice department said Arbabsiar was working under the direction of the Revolutionary Guards, and that Shakuri was a member of the Quds force.
According to the justice department, the aim was to bomb a restaurant in Washington frequented by Jubeir.
Arbabsiar allegedly met a confidential source from the US drug enforcement administration on several occasions in Mexico. He allegedly told the DEA source to go ahead with the plot despite the probability of mass casualties, saying: "They want that guy [the ambassador] done [killed] … If the hundred go with him, fuck 'em."
The agent and Arbabsiar allegedly discussed bombing a restaurant in the US that the ambassador frequented. When the agent noted that others could be killed in the attack, including US senators dining at the restaurant, Arbabsiar allegedly dismissed these concerns as "no big deal".
US officials said the Iranians had put a $1.5m (£950,000) price tag on the assassination.
Arbabsiar appeared briefly in court in New York on Tuesday afternoon, and was held without bail. Shakuri is said by the US to be in Iran.
The FBI's director, Robert Mueller, said the alleged plot read like a Hollywood film, while Clinton said: "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?"
Incredulity among US officials was shared by observers, some of whom went further and suggested the plot was so far-fetched as to be unbelievable.
Robert Baer, a former CIA agent, told the Guardian: "This stinks to holy hell. The Quds force are very good. They don't sit down with people they don't know and make a plot.
"They use proxies and they are professional about it. This is totally uncharacteristic of them."
The use of a sting operation is likely to heighten scepticism about the extent, if any, of the Iranian government's involvement.
A senior law enforcement official who had been involved in the investigation and would speak only on the condition of anonymity said: "It's so outside their normal track of activity. It's a rogue plan or they're using very different tactics. We just don't know."
According to the justice department, Arbabsiar met the DEA source in Mexico on 24 May, discussing explosives and explaining that he was interested in, among other things, attacking a Saudi embassy. They held further meetings in Mexico in June and July.
Arbabsiar allegedly arranged for $100,000 to be transferred into a bank account in the US for the supposed cartel member.
A friend of Arbabsiar, a former secondhand-car dealer, said the Iranian was known as "Jack" to his friends because his name was too hard to pronounce.
David Tomscha, who briefly owned a used car lot with him in Corpus Christi, Texas, said his friend was likeable, albeit a bit lazy.
"He's no mastermind," Tomscha said. "I can't imagine him thinking up a plan like that. I mean, he didn't seem all that political. He was more of a businessman."
The Saudi embassy in Washington described the alleged attempt to assassinate Jubeir as "despicable". Obama called the ambassador on Tuesday to express solidarity between the US and Saudi Arabia in the face of "a flagrant violation of US and international law".
David Cameron added his voice to the condemnation. "Indications that this plot was directed by elements of the Iranian regime are shocking," the prime minister said in a statement from his office. "We will support measures to hold Iran accountable for its actions."
Relations between the US and Iran have been tense for years over claims Tehran is seeking to make a nuclear bomb.
But the court case increases tensions even further, introducing unpredictable elements such a risk of retaliation by Saudi Arabia.
The central question is whether a rogue element in Iran may have been involved or whether the alleged plot was sanctioned by a senior leader.
Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House intelligence committee, who was briefed in detail, refused to say whether Ahmadinejad had been involved in the supposed plan but he insisted it was "an Iranian government-sanctioned event".
by Haroon Siddique taken from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/12/us-iran-plot-saudi-arabia
The US announced new economic sanctions against five Iranians, including four senior members of the Quds force, the special operations unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, which American officials have implicated in the alleged plot.
Sanctions were already in place but the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said a "very strong message" needed to be sent to the Iranian regime.
She said she and Barack Obama want to "enlist more countries in working together against what is becoming a clearer and clearer threat" from Iran.
The US is discussing with Saudi Arabia and other allies the possibility of taking the matter to the UN security council, according to Reuters, which cited an unnamed western diplomat.
A spokesman for the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, described the allegations as "a fabrication" while Iran's ambassador to the UN has written to the secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, complaining of US "warmongering".
Mohammad Khazaee wrote: "I am writing to you to express our outrage regarding the allegations levelled by the United States officials against the Islamic Republic of Iran on the involvement of my country in an assassination plot targeting a foreign diplomat in Washington."
Even in the US, there was incredulity at the brazen nature of the alleged plot.
But in a sign that relations between Tehran and Washington have soured further, the state department issued a worldwide alert about the supposed threat posed by Tehran to US citizens.
It said: "The US government assesses that this Iranian-backed plan to assassinate the Saudi ambassador may indicate a more aggressive focus by the Iranian government on terrorist activity against diplomats from certain countries, to include possible attacks in the United States."
Manssor Arbabsiar Two men, one an American-Iranian, Manssor Arbabsiar, 56, and Gholam Shakuri, an Iranian, have been charged in New York with the alleged "murder-for-hire" plot to pay a Mexican drug cartel to help assassinate Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi ambassador and close confidant of the Saudi king.The US justice department said Arbabsiar was working under the direction of the Revolutionary Guards, and that Shakuri was a member of the Quds force.
According to the justice department, the aim was to bomb a restaurant in Washington frequented by Jubeir.
Arbabsiar allegedly met a confidential source from the US drug enforcement administration on several occasions in Mexico. He allegedly told the DEA source to go ahead with the plot despite the probability of mass casualties, saying: "They want that guy [the ambassador] done [killed] … If the hundred go with him, fuck 'em."
The agent and Arbabsiar allegedly discussed bombing a restaurant in the US that the ambassador frequented. When the agent noted that others could be killed in the attack, including US senators dining at the restaurant, Arbabsiar allegedly dismissed these concerns as "no big deal".
US officials said the Iranians had put a $1.5m (£950,000) price tag on the assassination.
Arbabsiar appeared briefly in court in New York on Tuesday afternoon, and was held without bail. Shakuri is said by the US to be in Iran.
The FBI's director, Robert Mueller, said the alleged plot read like a Hollywood film, while Clinton said: "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?"
Incredulity among US officials was shared by observers, some of whom went further and suggested the plot was so far-fetched as to be unbelievable.
Robert Baer, a former CIA agent, told the Guardian: "This stinks to holy hell. The Quds force are very good. They don't sit down with people they don't know and make a plot.
"They use proxies and they are professional about it. This is totally uncharacteristic of them."
The use of a sting operation is likely to heighten scepticism about the extent, if any, of the Iranian government's involvement.
A senior law enforcement official who had been involved in the investigation and would speak only on the condition of anonymity said: "It's so outside their normal track of activity. It's a rogue plan or they're using very different tactics. We just don't know."
According to the justice department, Arbabsiar met the DEA source in Mexico on 24 May, discussing explosives and explaining that he was interested in, among other things, attacking a Saudi embassy. They held further meetings in Mexico in June and July.
Arbabsiar allegedly arranged for $100,000 to be transferred into a bank account in the US for the supposed cartel member.
A friend of Arbabsiar, a former secondhand-car dealer, said the Iranian was known as "Jack" to his friends because his name was too hard to pronounce.
David Tomscha, who briefly owned a used car lot with him in Corpus Christi, Texas, said his friend was likeable, albeit a bit lazy.
"He's no mastermind," Tomscha said. "I can't imagine him thinking up a plan like that. I mean, he didn't seem all that political. He was more of a businessman."
The Saudi embassy in Washington described the alleged attempt to assassinate Jubeir as "despicable". Obama called the ambassador on Tuesday to express solidarity between the US and Saudi Arabia in the face of "a flagrant violation of US and international law".
David Cameron added his voice to the condemnation. "Indications that this plot was directed by elements of the Iranian regime are shocking," the prime minister said in a statement from his office. "We will support measures to hold Iran accountable for its actions."
Relations between the US and Iran have been tense for years over claims Tehran is seeking to make a nuclear bomb.
But the court case increases tensions even further, introducing unpredictable elements such a risk of retaliation by Saudi Arabia.
The central question is whether a rogue element in Iran may have been involved or whether the alleged plot was sanctioned by a senior leader.
Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House intelligence committee, who was briefed in detail, refused to say whether Ahmadinejad had been involved in the supposed plan but he insisted it was "an Iranian government-sanctioned event".
by Haroon Siddique taken from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/12/us-iran-plot-saudi-arabia
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