US Terror Plot a 'Fabrication,' Says Iran
Ali Akbar Javanfekr has called the Washington D.C. terror plot, foiled by U.S. intelligence agencies Tuesday, “a fabrication.”
Javanfekr, a high-ranking adviser and spokesperson for Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, suggested in a press conference Tuesday that the U.S. used the bomb threat to distract the American population from “domestic issues,” and confirmed that the Iranian government is awaiting details on the case.
A criminal complaint was unsealed in New York federal court Tuesday documenting the $1.5 million assassination plot planned by 56-year-old Manssor Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri.
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According to the criminal report, Arbabsiar, a Corpus Christi, Texas resident, had planned to assassinate the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the U.S., Adel Al-Jubeir, and bomb Israeli and Saudi Arabian embassies in D.C.
Both Arbabsiar and Shakuri have connections to Iran. Shakuri is a member of Iran’s Quds Force, an elite unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps.
The Quds have a history of supporting terrorist missions abroad, according to The Daily Mail.
Attorney General Eric Holder said in a press conference Tuesday that the U.S. would hold Iran responsible for the terror plot.
According to Holder, the plot was “conceived, sponsored, and directed by Iran.”
The terrorist plot was disrupted when Arbabsiar proposition a DEA informant, disguised as a member of the Zetas Mexican drug cartel, to aid in the attack.
He even wired $100,000 to the informant via a New York bank as a security deposit for the attack, which promised a $1.5 million reward for a successful assassination.
The FBI and DEA followed the threat under the codename “Operation Red Coalition,”
Arbabsiar was arrest on Sept. 30 in New York’s JFK airport after arriving on a flight from Mexico. Shakuri still remains at large.
While in jail, Arbabsiar made a phone to Shakuri, urging him to go on with the assassination. The FBI recorded this phone conversation along with others and will use it as evidence in court.
President Barack Obama, who was briefed on the operation in June, praised U.S. intelligence agencies, referring to the foil as a “significant achievement for [U.S.] intelligence and law enforcement agencies.”
The Saudi Embassy in D.C. failed to comment concerning the foiled threat, according to USA Today.
