US authorities have broken up an alleged plot to bomb the
Israeli and Saudi Arabian embassies in Washington and
assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States, court
documents and a US official say.
The alleged plotters were identified as Manssor Arbabsiar and
Gholam Shakuri -- both originally from Iran -- in the
criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in New York
City.
Arbabsiar, a naturalized US citizen, was arrested in late
September. Shakuri is still at large.
The plot was disrupted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
and Drug Enforcement Administration.
US officials said one overarching question is whether
elements of the Iranian government were behind the plot.
Court documents identified Shakuri as a member of the Quds
Force, a branch of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps.
Shakuri approved the plan to try to kill the Saudi ambassador
during telephone conversations with Arbabsiar, the complaint
said.
In July and August, Arbabsiar paid $100,000 to a DEA
informant for the murder of Saudi ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir,
court documents said.
Arbabsiar was arrested late last month at New York's John F.
Kennedy International Airport. After his arrest, court papers
said, Arbabsiar confessed to authorities.
The men are charged with one count of conspiracy to murder a
foreign official, two counts of foreign travel and use of
interstate and foreign commerce facilities in the commission
of murder for hire and one count each of conspiracy to use a
weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy to commit an act of
terrorism.
Iran is rejecting the claims. IRNA, the official Iranian news
agency, slammed the accusations by the US Justice Department
as "America's new propaganda scenario" against Iran, without
elaborating.
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