Thaindian News

Washington, Oct 12 (IANS) The US is reportedly poised to take an even stronger stance Wednesday against Iran amid allegations that Tehran was behind a plot to assassinate a Saudi envoy on US soil.

With numerous sanctions against Iranian interests already in place, the focus on this front will be to urge other nations to join Washington and get tougher on Iran, a senior State Department official said Tuesday.

“Everything should be left on the table when you are talking about a potential attack (in) the United States, an act of war,” Peter King, Republican and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee told CNN calling the plot an “act of war” five times.

However, Mohammad Khazaee, Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations, dismissed the charges saying he was “shocked to hear such a big lie.” The chain of events outlined by US authorities was an “insult to the common sense,” he said.

Earlier Tuesday, the US Justice Department said the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) have disrupted a plot involving Iran to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States and commit other attacks.

Two men - one arrested, the other at large - have been charged in connection with the plot code-named “Chevrolet,” which officials alleged was directed by elements of the Iranian government.

One of the men - Manssor Arbabsiar, a naturalised US citizen holding an Iranian passport - arranged to hire for the assassination someone in Mexico who he thought was an associate of a drug trafficking cartel, it said.

The person in Mexico actually was a DEA confidential source who was posing as a cartel associate, officials said.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)