On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced that it had disrupted a plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the US and bomb the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington DC. According to the Justice Department’s press release, the plot was directed by “elements of the Iranian government.”
Responding to the Iranian terror plot, Rep. Peter King (R-New York) argued that “all options should be on the the table for President Obama to respond forcefully to this grave provocation by Iran, and the President has my full support to act.” King made his remarks in a statement released on his official congressional website.
Manssor Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri were charged in New York in connection with the Iranian terror plot on Tuesday. Arbabsiar is a naturalized US citizen, but Shakuri is a member of a special operations unit of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The IRGC is a suspected sponsor of terrorist activities abroad.
Following the disruption of the Iranian terror plot, US officials are scrambling to figure out how to best react to this new threat. King offered his own solution: “While I support the President’s ultimate decision, I believe that he should consider expelling Iranian officials, especially known intelligence officers, from the Iranian Mission to the United Nations in New York, and the Iranian Interests Section in Washington.”
According to the Justice Department’s press release, Arbabsiar was arrested at the end of September at New York’s JFK Airport. “We will continue to investigate this matter vigorously and bring those who have violated any laws to justice,” US Attorney General Eric Holder said.
King went as far as to say that “Iran’s assassination of a foreign diplomat in our country would have violated both US and international law, and represented an act of war against the United States, not to mention against Saudi Arabia.”
