Iran backed plot to kill Saudi envoy: US

Iranian ambassador to the UN says nation is outraged about accusations

Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday that Iran would pay the price for what US officials described as a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington,while Tehran called the accusation a fabrication designed to sow discord in the region.

US officials said the elaborate plot which they compared to a film script would justify pushing for a new round of UN sanctions against Iran. They imposed sanctions on Wednesday on Mahan Air,a commercial Iranian airline which they said provided funds and transport for Irans elite forces.

Tehran said the allegations threaten stability in the Gulf where Saudi Arabia and Iran,the biggest regional powers,are fierce rivals and Washington has a huge military presence.

Saudi prince Turki al-Faisal,himself a former ambassador to Washington,said: The burden of proof is overwhelming8230; and clearly shows official Iranian responsibility for this. Somebody in Iran will have to pay the price.

US Vice President Joe Biden told ABC TV that the US was working on a new round of sanctions against Iran and nothing has been taken off the table.

Ali Larijani,Irans parliament speaker,said the fabricated allegations aimed to divert attention from revolts in the region and turn Muslim countries against each other. America wants to divert attention from problems it faces in the Middle East,but the Americans cannot stop the wave of Islamic awakening by using such excuses, Larijani said.

These claims are vulgar, he said in an open session of parliament. We believe our neighbours in the region are well aware that US is using this story to ruin our relationship with Saudi Arabia.

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US authorities said on Tuesday they had unmasked the plot by two Iranians linked to security agencies to assassinate Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir. One,Mansour Arbabsiar,was arrested last month while the other is in Iran.

At a news conference,FBI Director Robert Mueller described a convoluted conspiracy involving monitored international calls,Mexican drug money and an attempt to blow up Jubeir,a confidante of King Abdullah.

Though it reads like the pages of a Hollywood script,the impact would have been very real and many lives would have been lost, Mueller said.

Some Iran experts were sceptical,saying they could not see the motive for such a plot. Iran has in the past assassinated its own dissidents abroad,but an attempt to kill an ambassador would be a highly unusual departure.

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US court documents accuse Arbabsiar,a naturalised US citizen with an Iranian passport,of paying 100,000 to an informant,who had posed as an associate of a Mexican drug cartel but in fact worked for the US Drug Enforcement Agency and alerted the authorities to the plot.

Arbabsiar made phone calls to Iran to the second suspect,Gholam Shakuri,described as a member of a unit of Irans Revolutionary Guards called the Quds Force.