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Two men charged in U.S. in alleged plot to murder Saudi ambassador

12 October 2011 00:12 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Two men have been charged in the U.S. for their alleged participation in a plot to murder the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States with explosives, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday. The two men also plotted to blow up the Saudi and Israeli Embassies in the U.S. capital Washington, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen holding both Iranian and U.S. passports, and Iranian Gholam Shakuri were charged with conspiracy to murder a foreign official, and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, among others, the Justice said in a statement. It alleged that the plot was directed by "elements of the Iranian government." Shakuri was believed to be a member of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force.

Arbabsiar was arrested on Sept. 29, 2011, at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. He faces a maximum potential sentence of life in prison if convicted. Shakuri remains at large. Arbabsiar was arraigned Tuesday afternoon in a New York court.

According to a criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of New York, Arbabsiar and his Iran-based co-conspirators have been plotting the murder of Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi Ambassador, since spring this year. He allegedly met on a number of occasions in Mexico with an informant of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) who has posed as an associate of an international drug trafficking cartel.

Arbabsiar arranged to hire the DEA informant to murder al- Jubeir, and Shakuri and other co-conspirators were aware of and approved the plan, the complaint said.

"The complaint alleges that this conspiracy was conceived, was sponsored, and was directed from Iran and constitutes a flagrant constitution against the law from protecting diplomats from being harmed," U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said at a press conference.

"In addition to them being held accountable for their plot, the United States is committed to holding Iran accountable for its actions," he said.

ABC news reports quoted U.S. officials as saying the suspects also plotted to bomb other targets such as the Saudi and Israeli Embassies. Officials say Arbabsiar expressed "utter disregard for collateral damage" likely to be incurred by the attacks. They also discussed bombing Saudi and Israeli Embassies in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

After the announcement, U.S. Treasury Department slapped sanctions on four individuals linked to the assassination attempt. U.S. defense officials were quoted as saying there has been no change to U.S. military posture in reaction to the plot. U.S. Navy ships in the region have not been repositioned, and at this point there’s no plans to do so.

Iranian officials have denied the allegations. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying the allegations were " fabrication" to distract public attention from "growing popular protests" inside the United States.