The United States on Wednesday warned it would hold Tehran accountable after foiling an alleged high-level Iranian plot to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington. “It is an outrageous act, where the Iranians will have to be held accountable,” US Vice President Joe Biden told ABC television’s “Good Morning America” programme. “The first thing we do is make sure the entire world and all of the capitals in the world understand what the Iranians had in mind,” Biden said. In an explosive twist to a bitter face-off with the Islamic republic, the US Justice Department on Tuesday charged two men with conspiring with Iranian officials to assassinate Saudi ambassador to the United States Adel al-Jubeir. Biden told ABC that the heinous alleged murder plot would “unite the whole world in the moral disapprobation of the Iranians”, and that the global community would respond accordingly – possibly with a new round of sanctions.
Implications: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington would consult its allies about how to “further isolate” Iran, and the European Union said there would be “serious implications” if the plot were confirmed. “Should the facts be confirmed, this would constitute a major breach of international law with serious international implications,” said Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for EU chief diplomat Catherine Ashton. “We call on the government of Iran to fully cooperate with the US justice system,” she told a news briefing.
UK: Meanwhile, Britain said it would support “measures to hold Iran accountable for its actions”. A spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron described the alleged Iranian involvement in the plot as “shocking”.
Confrontation: However, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, Ali Larijani, denounced the allegations as part of a “childish game” and “stupid mischief”, hours after Iran filed a formal complaint over the matter with the United Nations.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the Swiss charge d’affaires to “strongly” protest the US claims. The Swiss mission in Tehran handles US interests as Washington has had no diplomatic ties with Iran for more than three decades. The move came as Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi became the highest ranking official in Tehran to reject as “mischievous” the US claims. Salehi warned the US against “confrontation” over the accusations. “We are not seeking confrontation, our policy is cooperation and interaction. If they want to impose a confrontation upon the Iranian nation, the consequences of this issue will be more severe for them,” Salehi told reporters after a cabinet session, the ISNA news agency reported. “We do not want confrontation. (But) if they want to confront us and impose something on us, it will be the end of them. If they have the power to throw a punch, we have the power to smack (them) in a way that they would not be able to stand up,” Salehi said. Salehi claimed there had been “many cases” the West had blamed on Iran but which later turned out to be “a mistake”.
Overwhelming evidence: A former chief of Saudi intelligence, Prince Turki al-Faisal, said there was overwhelming evidence that Tehran was behind the plot and warned “somebody in Iran” must “pay the price”. “The burden of proof is overwhelming… and clearly shows official Iranian responsibility for this. Somebody in Iran will have to pay the price, whatever the level of these persons is,” he told a conference.