Saudis say Iran must ‘pay the price’ for alleged plot as US resists retaliation

Tehran denies it was behind plot to kill Saudi ambassador and says US is using it to divert attention from problems at home Saudi Arabia has issued a menacing ­warning to Iran that it will have to pay a price for the alleged plot to hire a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate its ambassador in Washington. The threat from the Saudis came as the Obama administration described the alleged plot as a “dangerous escalation” in the region. White House spokesman Jay Carney said “clearly the plotting happened at senior levels of the Quds force [Iranian special forces]” but the administration resisted calls from within the US, mainly from the conservative right, to retaliate against Iran with military action. On Wednesday night Carney said Barack Obama spoke to King Abdullah, the Saudi king, about the alleged plot and both agreed it was “a flagrant violation of international law”. Iran denied it was behind the alleged plot, with officials accusing Washington of fabricating the story to divide Sunni Muslims, the dominant group in Saudi, and Shia Muslims, the dominant group in Iran. They claimed Barack Obama was using the story to divert attention from the Occupy Wall Street protests. The US justice department said on Tuesday two men had been charged with a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, with a bomb explosion at one of his favourite restaurants. One of the men, Manssor Arbabsiar, an American-Iranian, is alleged to have sought the help of a Mexican drug cartel, Zetas, to provide explosives and carry out the attack. The other man is, according to the US, in Iran. Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s former ambassador to Washington and former head of the Saudi intelligence service, told a London conference: “The burden of proof and the amount of evidence in the case is overwhelming and clearly shows official Iranian responsibility for this. “This is unacceptable. Somebody in Iran will have to pay the price.” Relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran have long been strained, exacerbated this year by Saudi sending forces into neighbouring Bahrain to help put down protesters, many of them Shia Muslims. In spite of increased tension between Saudi and Iran as a result of the episode, the alleged plot is being met with scepticism within the diplomatic community, as well as from foreign affairs analysts specialising in Iran. Many said the plot was amateurish and questioned what Iran would gain from such an outrage. A former western diplomat with an intimate knowledge of Iranian affairs said: “I don’t believe Iran’s regime was behind the plot. If we assume it was Iran’s plot, then it would seem like a group of professional gangsters hiring a careless agent for their most important project. It’s impossible.” Fresh details emerged yesterday about the man at the centre of the affair. Arbabsiar, 56, appeared in court in New York on Tuesday. He is allegedly linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the paramilitary group closely entwined with the Iranian leadership. He does not fit the usual profile of an Iranian agent, who tend to be professional. Arbabsiar is a car salesman in Corpus Christi, Texas. Susan Rice, US ambassador to the UN, said she and a team of experts were briefing individual members of the security council on the plot. One of the main pieces of evidence is $100,000 (£63,000) transferred to the US, allegedly from Iran, as a downpayment for the assassination attempt. The vice-president, Joe Biden, in an ABC television interview, said Iran would be held accountable and all options, including military, remained on the table. But the administration is focused on a diplomatic effort to persuade its allies to impose tougher economic sanctions on Iran. The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, described the alleged plot as a “reckless act”. The state department issued a three-month worldwide travel alert for American citizens. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, said the US accusations were baseless. “Such worn-out approaches are … part of the special scenarios staged and pursued by the enemies of Islam and the region to sow discord among Muslims,” the semi-official Fars news agency quoted him as saying. Fars also quoted Alaoddin Boroujerdi, the head of the parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, saying: “Today the United States is witnessing a popular uprising called Wall Street protests, which have targeted the hostile policies of that country’s statesmen. Thus, Americans are seeking to derail the public opinion from the Wall Street uprising.” Iran Global terrorism FBI United States Saudi Arabia US foreign policy Hillary Clinton Obama administration Ewen MacAskill Saeed Kamali Dehghan guardian.co.uk

Posted by on October 13, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.