U.S., U.N. Security Council Members Talk Iran Response

Iran accused of plotting to assassination, bombing in Washington, D.C.

ByABC News
October 12, 2011, 7:18 AM

Oct. 12, 2011 — -- A U.S. representative is meeting separately with members of the United Nations Security Council concerning a potential international response to the alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador on U.S. soil, the State Department said today.

America's U.N. ambassador, Susan Rice, is meeting with member nations today as part of the U.S. government's effort to "unite world opinion" against Iran, in the words of Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden said today that "nothing has been taken off the table" when it comes to America's possible response to the alleged plot.

"It is an outrageous act that the Iranians are going to have to be held accountable," Biden told ABC News' "Good Morning America". "This is really over the top."

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced Tuesday the DEA and FBI had disrupted a plot "conceived, sponsored and... directed from Iran" to murder the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S. in or outside a crowded Washington, D.C. restaurant which potentially would have been followed up by bombings of the Saudi Arabian and Israeli embassies. The U.S. said an Iranian-American, 56-year-old Manssor Arbabsiar of Corpus Christi, Texas, was working for elements of the Iranian government when he attempted to hire hitmen from the feared Zetas Mexican drug cartel to carry out the hit, but Arbabsiar was unwittingly speaking to a DEA informant from the start.

READ: U.S. Complaint in Alleged Iran-Directed Terror Plot (PDF)

Senior Obama administration officials had previously told ABC News the U.S. response would not include the possibility of an armed conflict with Iran and -- though a complaint filed in federal court directly tied Iran's elite Quds military unit to the plot -- there was no information that Iran's top leaders were aware or had any role.

White House spokesperson Jay Carney echoed Biden's comments to reporters this afternoon, saying all options are on the table, but said that "in dealing with Iran, we are clearly focused on working through economic measures -- sanctions -- as well as diplomatic measures to isolate Iran."

The U.S. Treasury Department announced Tuesday sanctions against five Iranians allegedly tied to the plot and additional sanctions today against an airline company allegedly linked to the Quds force.

Speaking in London, Saudi Arabia's former intelligence chief and ambassador to the U.S., Prince Turki al-Faisal, said, "somebody in Iran will have to pay the price, and that price will have to be on the terms acceptable to the norms and practices in Iran and other countries," according to a Reuters report.

READ: U.S. Will Not Respond Militarily to Iran Over Assassination Plot

A lawyer for Arbabsiar has not returned requests for comment, but the man's wife, Martha Guerrero, said he was wrongly accused.

"I may not be living with him being separated, but I cannot for the life of me think that he would be capable of doing that," she told ABC News' Austin affiliate KVUE, noting the two had been separated some time. "He was at the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm sure of that."

Iranian officials have strongly rejected the U.S. accusations, calling them a "fabrication." The head of the Iranian mission to the United Nations penned a letter Tuesday to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressing "outrage" at the allegations.

"The U.S. allegation is, obviously, a politically-motivated move and a showcase of its long-standing animosity towards the Iranian nation," the letter says. "The Islamic Republic of Iran categorically and in the strongest terms condemns this shameful allegation by the United States authorities and deplores it as a well-thought evil plot in line with their anti-Iranian policy to divert attention from the current economic and social problems at home and the popular revolutions and protests against United States long supported dictatorial regimes abroad."

Alleged Terror Plotter Claims He Was 'Directed By High-Ranking' Iranian Officials

The new case, called Operation Red Coalition, began in May when Arbabsiar unwittingly approached a DEA informant seeking the help of a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate the Saudi ambassador, according to counter-terrorism officials.

Arbabsiar reportedly claimed he was being "directed by high-ranking members of the Iranian government," including a cousin who was "a member of the Iranian army but did not wear a uniform," according to a person briefed on the details of the case.