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Full Article Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Read No end in sight for global BlackBerry outage | 4:09pm EDT Analysis: Debates just may not be Rick Perry's thing 11 Oct 2011 Obama to push Congress on parts of jobs plan: Geithner 11 Oct 2011 Saudis, U.S. trade charges with Iran over plot | 3:56pm EDT UPDATE 3-BlackBerry outages spread to North America 1:02pm EDT Discussed 272 Secret panel can put Americans on ”kill list’ 169 California governor signs controversial ”Dream Act” 128 Hank Williams Jr. lashes out at media in new song Watched Robotic car learns as it travels Tue, Oct 11 2011 Japanese airline, ANA, apologises for plane flip Fri, Sep 30 2011 Rihanna's "inappropriate" outfit halts music video Tue, Sep 27 2011 Questions abound over Iran "plot" to kill Saudi envoy Tweet Share this Email Print Manssor Arbabsiar is shown in this 1996 Nueces County, Texas, Sheriff's Office photograph. Credit: Reuters/Nueces County Sheriff's Office Related News Biden says Iran will be held accountable for plot 11:17am EDT U.S. issues world travel alert linked to Iran plot 8:40am EDT Iran rejects "vulgar" U.S. plot allegation 7:24am EDT Iranians charged in U.S. over assassination plot Tue, Oct 11 2011 Clinton says plot will isolate Iran Tue, Oct 11 2011 Analysis & Opinion Princes and clerics guide pace of Saudi reforms Iranian Supreme Court returns Pastor Nadarkhaniâ€™s case to lower court Related Topics World » By Alistair Lyon LONDON | Wed Oct 12, 2011 2:31pm EDT LONDON (Reuters) - You couldn't make it up -- or could you? U.S. allegations that an Iranian spy outfit attempted to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington in a convoluted plot involving a U.S. informant posing as a member of a Mexican drug cartel seem bizarre to say the least. Still, Washington says the drama justifies new international sanctions against Iran and Saudi Arabia's former intelligence chief insists that "somebody in Iran" must pay the price. "The burden of proof and the amount of evidence in the case is overwhelming and clearly shows official Iranian responsibility for this," Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal said. The potential consequences are dire in a tense region where the United States and Israel reserve the right to attack Iran to stop it acquiring a nuclear bomb, a goal Tehran disavows. For starters, the row could throttle any slim chance of resuming negotiations to settle the nuclear dispute. Saudi-Iranian acrimony has ratcheted up this year, especially since Saudi troops intervened to help Bahrain's Sunni rulers crush protests led by the island's Shi'ite majority and fomented, according to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, by Iran. From across the Middle East's Arab-Persian and Sunni-Shi'ite faultlines, Riyadh also accuses Tehran of inciting unrest among minority Shi'ites in its own oil-rich Eastern Province, and has often urged the United States in the past to attack Iran, according to diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks. The plot suspects are Iranian-American Manssor Arbabsiar, 56, arrested on September 29 in New York, and Gholam Shakuri, said to be a member of Quds Force, the covert, operational arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. He is thought to be in Iran. U.S. evidence rests mainly on Arbabsiar's alleged confession that he had acted for men he thought were top Quds officials. MOTIVE AND MEANS Yet questions abound over the putative plot, not least the classic ones of motive and means. Many analysts are skeptical. What could Iran hope to gain from an assassination that would have brought fierce retribution? Why try to recruit a hitman from a Mexican drug cartel instead of using its own? On the other hand, why would the United States, even with a presidential election looming next year, go public with such accusations unless they were well founded, knowing the impact they could have on an already volatile Middle East? "Killing the Saudi envoy in America has no benefit for Iran," said independent Iranian analyst Saeed Leylaz. "Why should Iran create hostility when the region is boiling? Dismissing the "very amateur scenario" as out of character, he said: "Iran might have conducted some political adventurism like denying the Holocaust, but an assassination attempt, particularly in America, is so un-Iranian." It would certainly be a departure for Iran, although it has assassinated its own dissidents abroad since the 1979 Islamic revolution, and it has used Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon and Shi'ite militias in Iraq to further its own aims. Decision-making in Tehran is murky and factional rivalry is rife. But the idea that rogue Quds elements could concoct such a momentous plot seems a stretch. That Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would authorize it seems more so. "The United States would not blame the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps) without substantial evidence," argued U.S.-based global intelligence company Stratfor. "However, this plot seems far-fetched considering the Iranian intelligence services' usual methods of operation and the fact that its ramifications would involved substantial political risk," it added. Former CIA agent Robert Baer poured scorn on the reported Iranian conspiracy. "This stinks to holy hell," he told Britain's Guardian newspaper. "The Quds Force are very good. They don't sit down with people they don't know and make a plot. They use proxies and they are professional about it." CONSEQUENCES UNCLEAR How this lurid episode in the adversarial relationships between Iran, the United States and its Saudi ally will play out in a Middle East already in turmoil is not yet clear. Iran's parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, said the "fabricated allegations" were a U.S. bid to divert attention from Arab uprisings that Iran says were inspired by its own Islamic revolution which toppled the U.S.-backed Shah in 1979. Tehran has watched in glee as popular revolts have ousted U.S. allies in Egypt and Tunisia, even if Islam has not been the overt driving force behind the surge of Arab unrest - it may have more in common with Iran's own street protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in 2009. Iran, however, is disconcerted by the upheaval in Syria, its only solid Arab ally and overland link to Hezbollah. The fall of President Bashar al-Assad would damage Iran's "resistance" axis and perhaps strengthen Saudi Arabia and Turkey, its main Sunni rivals for influence in the Middle East. Major General Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force, is already on a U.S. sanctions list for allegedly supporting Assad's violent six-month-old crackdown on dissent. Nevertheless, it seems doubtful that any of the protagonists would want to use the alleged Iranian plot as a pretext for all-out confrontation in a region the world depends on for oil. Given that no one was hurt, Iran, the United States and Saudi Arabia may avert any violent fallout -- although Washington clearly intends to push for further international punishment of Iran for its defiance of U.S. policy. "More U.S. sanctions will be about the limit of it," said Alastair Newton, a former senior British Foreign Office official and now senior political analyst for Japanese bank Nomura. "The U.S. case hardly looks solid, either, so let's wait and see." U.S. officials have themselves acknowledged that the details of the plot smack of a Hollywood script, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton jesting: "Nobody could make that up, right?" (Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Tehran, Peter Apps and Dmitry Zhdannikov in London, and Washington/New York bureaux; Editing by Alastair Macdonald) World Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (2) GalacticCat wrote: Have our US mindless masses forgotten that in the 9/11 attack 15 of the attackers were Saudi’s . None were Iranian, and none were Iraqi’s. But our politicians fabricated reasons with lies, to attack IRAQ. And now 10 years on, a new fabrication on IRAN by the CIA . I wonder if fellow Americans will buy this latest propaganda against IRAN an 5,000 year old civilization. They probably will . I am one American who won’t. Oct 12, 2011 12:53pm EDT -- Report as abuse flipper12 wrote: Balanced Article. Thanks. In my opinion, this was a desperate operation by the USA to win back Saudi Arabia, who has promised to end its “special relationship” with the USA, if the USA vetoes the Palestinian bid for statehood. By making itself (USA) look like it was protecting Saudi Arabia against Iran just before the USA Veto, the USA is attempting to keep Saudi Arabia from keeping its promise to end its “special relationship” with the United States. This is likely why the sting/plot/frame was so lame. It was a quick (unplanned) response by the USA to a recent threat from Saudi Arabia. So the wet dream by USA strategists was probably a straight flush. 1. Get Saudi Arabia to back down on its threat of economic retaliation to a US veto regarding Palestinian Statehood. 2. Get Holder (fast and furious illegalities) and Muellar (Anthrax evidence illegalities) back from possible prosecution. 3. Get more support for US drones over Mexico. 4. Ratchet up reasons to invade Iran and Middle east. Lucky for the world, the strategists are as out of touch with American current perceptions as they are with the economic inequalities demonstrated by the protests against them around the United States. They have been used to running roughshod over American citizens’ sensibilities through fear and shock doctrine techniques. Oct 12, 2011 4:50pm EDT -- Report as abuse See All Comments » Add Your Comment Social Stream (What's this?) 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