TEHRAN, Oct 15, (Agencies): Iran on Saturday hardened its denial of involvement in a thwarted assassination plot in Washington, with its supreme leader slamming the US accusations as “absurd” and without effect.
The remarks — the first direct response by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — came as Iran’s government again urged Saudi Arabia to be wary over the plot claims that Iranian officials tried to contract a Mexican drug cartel to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington.
The US government is rallying other nations to its bid to further isolate Iran over the plot and has provided allies with details its says prove the outlandish assassination bid was genuine.
US President Barack Obama on Thursday warned Iran would be held to account over the alleged plot, which he described as part of a pattern of “dangerous and reckless” behaviour by Tehran.
Iran’s strenuous denials of involvement, made ever since the alleged plot was made public Tuesday, were capped Saturday with Khamenei’s speech.
“It’s a meaningless and absurd accusation regarding a number of Iranians,” he said in a speech carried by state television.
“But it has not stuck and it will not stick,” he said.
Khamenei added defiantly: “They say that they want to isolate Iran. They are the ones who are isolated.”
US officials admit they do not know which of Iran’s leaders, if any, are implicated.
But Obama stressed that “even if at the highest levels there was not detailed operational knowledge, there has to be accountability with respect to anybody in the Iranian government engaging in this kind of activity.”
The US Justice Department and FBI say the trail leads to officials inside the Quds Force, a special operations outfit within Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards.
Quds Force personnel are said to have transferred nearly $100,000 to the bank account used by a member of a Mexican drug cartel who was really a paid US informant who tipped off the FBI.
The money was allegedly a down payment for a $1.5-million-dollar hit on the Saudi ambassador, Adel al-Jubeir, possibly through the bombing of a Washington restaurant.
An Iranian used-car salesman who is a naturalised US citizen living in Texas, Manssor Arbabsiar, is said to have confessed to acting as the go-between for his cousin, whom he described as a high-ranking official in the Quds Force, and the Mexican cartel.
Arbabsiar is in US custody, charged with the plot.
The US Justice Department has also charged another Iranian identified as Gholam Shakuri, who is said to be an Iran-based Quds Force operative who flew to the United States to speak with Ababsiar. Shakuri is now believed to be in Iran.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal has said his country “will find a suitable response” against Iran for the alleged plot.
But Iran’s foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, on Saturday said: “We hope the Saudis will deal with this issue with caution.”
He accused the United States of trying to create divisions in the Middle East but said “Saudis were too wise to get involved in this political game,” according to the Fars news agency, citing comments Salehi made on state radio.
Saudi Arabia has asked UN chief Ban Ki-moon to inform the Security Council of the “heinous conspiracy” to kill its envoy to Washington, in an alleged Iranian plot, SPA state news agency said on Saturday.
“The Saudi permanent mission to the United Nations in New York has ...formally requested the UN secretary general to inform the Security Council of the heinous conspiracy to assassinate the Saudi ambassador,” it said.
“All those involved in this odious attempt should face justice,” it added, quoting a statement by the mission.
US ambassador Susan Rice, joined by the Saudi envoy to the UN, Abdallah al-Mouallimi, held separate meetings with envoys on the 15-nation council, US officials and diplomats said.
Meanwhile, friends of the Iranian-born Texas man accused of an elaborate plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington said Arbabsiar was a heavy drinker and flighty businessman who did not fit the profile of a cunning agent.
They say they are stunned by the charges against him.
“Everybody was like, ‘What, Jack?’” said Mitchel Hamauei, a friend who runs a Corpus Christi Mediterranean market and deli that Manssor “Jack” Arbabsiar frequented.
Friends describe Arbabsiar as irresponsible yet well meaning, as prone to give cash to anyone who needs it as he is to hide in an apartment when creditors knock.
They say he is chatty, not secretive. People who know him say he has a habit of starting projects that do not last, from flunking out of a Texas college to launching used-car dealerships, a Greek restaurant and other ventures that either failed or were sold.
He got his nickname from his penchant for swigging Jack Daniels whiskey, friends said.
“No way was this guy the master of this plot,” said former roommate Tom Hosseini, who has known Arbabsiar for 30 years. “Iran has 75 million people, and they cannot find a better guy to make a plot like this?”
While President Barack Obama and top aides have been united this week in grave warnings over an alleged Iranian assassination plot, some US government officials are privately expressing disquiet that the outlandish-sounding plan has triggered US calls for stiff new action against Iran.
These officials, while not disputing many facts of the case, say that if anything, the scheme reveals weaknesses in Iran’s security agencies, and the increasingly fractured state of Iran’s government as it faces intense international pressure.
They also questioned the wisdom of the White House strategy in using the affair to rapidly push for tougher sanctions on Tehran, increasing regional tensions.
“A lot of people basically feel really suspicious about this,” one official said, questioning the White House’s motivation “in ratcheting this thing up so quickly.”
Like others, this official insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
A second US official said he shared those concerns, and questioned whether new sanctions, especially unilateral US ones, would have much more than a cosmetic effect on the already heavily sanctioned country.