The White House today hailed the disruption of an alleged Iranian bomb plot as a major achievement for US intelligence and law enforcement and said President Barack Obama had ordered full cooperation with the investigation.
"The president was first briefed on this issue in June and directed his administration to provide all necessary support to this investigation," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said.
The Justice Department charged two men, one allegedly a member of a secret Iranian military unit and the other with dual US-Iran citizenship, in a plot to use a weapon of mass destruction to kill Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the US.
Manssor Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri were charged in a purported conspiracy to murder Ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir in a plan hatched earlier this year, according to papers filed in Manhattan federal court.
Mr Arbabsiar, a naturalised US citizen, wired more than a $100,000 to the US as part of the alleged plot, the government said.
US attorney general Eric Holder said today that the US will hold Iran responsible for any terrorist actions tied to the plot, which he said was sponsored by the Iranian government. He called the conspiracy a "flagrant" violation of international law.
The plot was to be "merely the opening act," Manhattan US attorney Preet Bharara said. The US said Mr Arbabsiar allegedly conspired with Shakuri, a member of Iran's 'Qods Force'.
Mr Arbabsiar met on several occasions in Mexico with a confidential source of the Drug Enforcement Agency and Arbabsiar arranged with men posing as criminal associates to murder the ambassador, according to the government.
The Qods Force is described as "the most secret of the Iranian regime's numerous military organisations" by the Iran Terror Database.
Mr Shakuri remains at large, Bharara's office said.
Mr Arbabsiar was arrested on September 29th at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport and is to appear later today in federal court in New York.
Spokesman for Iran's UN mission Alireza Miryousefi said in a statement: "We categorically reject these baseless allegations."
Reuters/Bloomberg