US officials announced that FBI and DEA agents had managed to foil a plot to commit significant terrorist attacks in the United States and quite possibly in Buenos Aires against the Jewish and Saudi embassies.
According to the ABC News network, authorities pointed out that the attacks “are tied to Iran” and included assassinating the Saudi ambassador to the US, Adel Al-Jubeir and bombing the Israeli and Saudi embassies in Washington DC.
“Bombing the Israeli and Saudi embassies in Buenos Aires was also being discussed,” sources told ABC News.
So far, authorities from the Argentine-Jewish community were in constant touch with the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, while it was known that Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman received a phone call while he was visiting the Tecnópolis science and technology park and immediately left the premises.
The United States accused Iran of backing a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington, escalating tensions with Tehran and stirring up a hornet’s nest in the Gulf, where Saudi Arabia and Iran have long jostled for power.
US authorities said they had broken up a plot by two men linked to the Iranian government to assassinate Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir. One was arrested last month while the other was believed to be in Iran.
Iran denied the charges. Saudi Arabia called the plot «a despicable violation of international norms, standards and conventions.»
Revelation of the alleged plot, and the apparent direct ties to the Tehran government, had the potential to further inflame tensions in the Middle East and the United States said Tehran must be held top account.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in an interview, called it a «blatant violation» of international norms. She expressed hope that countries that have hesitated to enforce existing sanctions on Iran would now «go the extra mile.»
FBI Director Robert Mueller told reporters the convoluted plot, involving drug cartels in Mexico, big payments of money and an attempt to kill the ambassador in a Washington restaurant, could have been material for a Hollywood movie.
US Attorney General Eric Holder pointed to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is the guardian of Iran’s 32-year-old revolution, and the Quds force, its covert, operational arm.
«High-up officials in those (Iranian) agencies, which is an integral part of the Iranian government, were responsible for this plot,» Holder said.
«I think one has to be concerned about the chilling nature of what the Iranian government attempted to do here,» he said.
According to the indictment, one of the alleged plotters said after his arrest that he had been recruited and directed by men he understood were senior Quds Force officials.
There are no formal diplomatic ties between the Islamic republic and Washington, which accuses Tehran of backing terrorism and pursuing nuclear arms, a charge Iran has denied.
Iran already faces a raft of tough economic sanctions and Washington slapped further economic sanctions on five Iranians including four senior members of Quds.
Iran and Saudi Arabia have likewise long been at odds. The Saudis, who see themselves as the center of the Sunni sect of Islam, have been alarmed by what they see as expansionist tendencies by majority Shi’ite Iran, whose people are primarily Persian rather than Arab.
US 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 on Tuesday.
Rejecting the allegations, Iran’s state English language Press TV said: «The Islamic Republic of Iran has rejected US accusations of the country plotting to assassinate the Saudi envoy to Washington as a prefabricated scenario.»
Last month hopes were raised of improved ties when Iran released two US 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.
US officials identified the two alleged plotters as Gholam Shakuri, who is a member of the Quds force, and Manssor Arbabsiar, who was arrested on Sept. 29 when he arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport from Mexico.
Arbabsiar, 56, who is a naturalized US citizen and holds an Iranian passport, initially cooperated with authorities after being arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Sept. 29.
He made calls to Shakuri after being arrested and acted as if the plot was still a go, court documents said.
Arbabsiar made a brief appearance in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday where he was ordered detained and assigned a public defender. He appeared in blue jeans and a dress shirt, thinning gray hair and a scar on the left side of his face.
Officials said that the Saudi ambassador, Al-Jubeir, who is close to King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz and has been in his post since 2007, 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 US Drug Enforcement Administration.
The confidential source, who was a paid informant but 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.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald