U.S. Accuses Iranians of Plotting to Kill Saudi Envoy
\nBy CHARLIE SAVAGE and SCOTT SHANE – October 11, 2011 NYT<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 The United States on Tuesday accused Iranian officials of plotting to murder Saudi Arabia\u2019s ambassador to the United States in a bizarre scheme involving an Iranian-American used-car salesman who believed he was hiring assassins from a Mexican drug cartel for $1.5 million.<\/p>\n
The alleged plot also included plans to pay the cartel, Los Zetas, to bomb the Israeli Embassy in Washington and the Saudi and Israeli Embassies in Argentina, according to a law enforcement official.<\/p>\n
The plotters also discussed a side deal between the Quds Force, part of Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and Los Zetas to funnel tons of opium from the Middle East to Mexico, the official said. The plans never progressed, though, because the two suspects \u2014 the Iranian-American and an Iranian Quds Force officer \u2014 unwittingly were dealing with an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration, officials said.<\/p>\n
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who announced the murder plot at a news conference in Washington, said it was \u201cdirected and approved by elements of the Iranian government and, specifically, senior members of the Quds Force.\u201d He added that \u201chigh-up officials in those agencies, which is an integral part of the Iranian government, were responsible for this plot.\u201d<\/p>\n
The charges heightened tensions in an already fraught relationship between Iran and the United States.<\/p>\n
The Iranian ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammad Khazaee, said his nation was \u201coutraged\u201d about the accusations. In a letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Mr. Khazaee said that Iran \u201cstrongly and categorically rejects these fabricated and baseless allegations, based on the suspicious claims by an individual.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia and Iran are locked in a bitter regional rivalry, one that has intensified as they have jockeyed for influence since the political upheavals of the Arab Spring. The Saudi Embassy in Washington denounced the plot against the ambassador, Adel al-Jubeir, as \u201ca despicable violation of international norms, standards and conventions.\u201d …more<\/a><\/p>\n