Iranians charged in US over plot to kill Saudi envoy

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – U.S. authorities  broke up a plot by two men linked to the Iranian government to  assassinate the Saudi ambassador in the United States, U.S.  officials said today, escalating tensions between Tehran  and Washington.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said one of two men  charged in the plot, both originally from Iran, had been  arrested and had confessed.
The other man, who was still at large, was described in the  criminal complaint as being a member of the elite Quds Force,  which is part of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“High-up (Iranian) officials in those agencies … were  responsible for this plot,” Holder told a news conference. “I  think one has to be concerned about the chilling nature of what  the Iranian government attempted to do here,” he said.
The two men were charged in a U.S. court. Gholam Shakuri  was described in the criminal complaint as a member of the Quds  Force and is believed to be in Iran.
The arrested suspected was Manssor Arbabsiar, 56, who is a  naturalized U.S. citizen and holds an Iranian passport. He was   detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York  on Sept. 29.
Arbabsiar made a brief appearance in a Manhattan courtroom  where he was ordered detained and assigned a public defender.  He appeared in blue jeans and a dress shirt. He had thinning  gray hair and a scar on the left side of his face.
Iran swiftly rejected the allegation. “The Islamic Republic  of Iran has rejected U.S. accusations of the country plotting  to assassinate the Saudi envoy to Washington as a prefabricated  scenario,” state English language Press TV said, without  elaborating or giving a source.
U.S. officials said there had also been initial discussions  about other alleged plots, including attacking the Saudi and  Israeli embassies in Washington, however no charges for that  were revealed today.
The United States slapped economic sanctions on five  Iranians including four senior members of the Quds.
The target of the plot was Saudi ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir,  according to the criminal complaint. U.S. allied Saudi Arabia  and Iran, both major oil exporting countries, are historic  regional rivals that have struggled for dominance in the Gulf.
Relations were already sour between between the Tehran and  Washington, which accuses the Islamic republic of backing  terrorism and pursuing nuclear arms, a charge Iran has denied.
Last month hopes were raised of improved ties when Iran  released two U.S. hikers accused of spying when they were  arrested on the Iran-Iraq border in 2009. Holder said there was  no link between the hikers’s case and the alleged plot.
Officials said that the Saudi ambassador, Adel Al-Jubeir,  was never in danger. President Barack Obama was briefed in June  about the alleged plot and through a spokesman expressed  gratitude for it being disrupted.
The assassination plot began to unfold in May 2011 when  Arbabsiar approached an individual in Mexico to help, but that  individual turned out to be an informant for the U.S. Drug  Enforcement Administration.
The confidential source, who was not identified,  immediately tipped law enforcement agents, according to the  criminal complaint. Arbabsiar paid $100,000 to the informant in  July and August for the plot, a down payment on the $1.5  million requested.
Shakuri approved the plan to kill the ambassador during  telephone conversations with Arbabsiar, the complaint said.
After Arbabsiar was arrested in New York, he allegedly  confessed and provided U.S. authorities with more details about  the Iranian government’s alleged involvement, Holder said.