House Speaker John Boehner today called on Obama to 'hold Iran's feet to the fire' in the wake of the thwarting of a 'significant terrorist act' by agents working for the Iranian government to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to America in Washington DC.
The Republican leader led calls for the President to take swift and decisive action against the Ahmadinejad administration after the discovery of the plot, which Mr Boehner called 'a very serious breach of international behaviour'.
Vice President Joe Biden this morning said that 'nothing has been taken off the table' as the U.S. discusses possible sanctions and military action. He said the consequences for Iran will be 'serious'.
Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old U.S. citizen who also holds an Iranian passport, appeared in court in New York last night accused of trying to hire a Mexican drugs cartel to carry out the killing.
He is accused of plotting to kill Adel Al-Jubeir by bombing a restaurant, before setting off blasts at the Saudi and Israeli embassies.
The devastating plan was foiled after Arbabsiar offered a government informant posing as a Mexican drug cartel associate a $1.5 million bounty to help carry out the attack.
New details emerged tonight about the informant who helped uncover the plan, which could have cause catastrophic damage if it had been successful.
The man, known by the codename CS-1, was posing as a member of the feared Zetas drug cartel, reported ABC News.
The Zetas have have been behind some of the worst violence in Mexico's drug war, including mass beheadings, the murder of a U.S. immigration official, and the arson of a Monterrey casino that trapped and killed 52.
Government officials revealed that the informant had been busted by the Drug Enforcement Agency for drug trafficking and had become a source that had helped make arrests in drugs cases.
Rhetoric against Iran is building today as the U.S. is poised to taken an even stronger stance against Tehran.
Mr Biden said that it was 'an outrageous act and the Iranians are going to have to be held accountable.
'The first thing we're going to be doing is making sure the entire world and all the capitals of the world understand what exactly the Iranians had in mind,' he told Good Morning America.
'It's an outrage that violates one of the fundamental premises upon which nations deal with one another, and that is the sanctity and safety of their diplomats.
Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Peter King said that the 'flagrant and notorious' plot was 'an act of war' and that military action could not be ruled out.
'We should not be... automatically saying we're not going to have military action,' he told CNN.
'Everything should be left on the table when you are talking about a potential attack [in] the United States, an act of war.'
A former chief of Saudi intelligence services said evidence that Iran was behind a plot to kill the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington was overwhelming.
Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal said: 'The burden of proof is overwhelming, and clearly shows official Iranian responsibility for this. Somebody in Iran will have to pay the price.'
A spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron said that Britain is consulting with the U.S. on action against Iran.
'We are in close touch with the U.S. authorities and we will support measures to hold Iran accountable for its actions,' he said.
Last night Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the plot 'crosses a line' in Iran's state sponsorship of terrorism and will further isolate the Islamic republic.
Mrs Clinton said: 'This really, in the minds of many diplomats and government officials, crosses a line that Iran needs to be held to account for.'
'The idea that they would attempt to go to a Mexican drug cartel to solicit murder-for-hire to kill the Saudi ambassador, nobody could make that up, right?' she said.
Clinton said the scheme 'creates a potential for international reaction that will further isolate Iran, that will raise questions about what they're up to, not only in the United States and Mexico'.
Arbabsiar and another man, Gholam Shakuri, have been charged with the $1.5 million terror plot.
Shakuri, whom authorities said was a member of the Quds Force, a branch of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is still at large.
A third man named Abdul-Reza Shahlai is accused of coordinating the alleged plot.
Shahlai, an Iranian official who is Arbabsiar's cousin, has previously been accused of plotting an attack in Iraq which killed five U.S. soldiers.
Arbabsiar's wife, Martha Guerrero, last night said that he was wrongly accused.
'I may not be living with him being separated, but I cannot for the life of me think that he would be capable of doing that,' she told local station KVUE.
'He was at the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm sure of that.'
Iranian officials have laughed off the accusation that it was a plot backed by the government in Tehran.
Shocking details of the plot have emerged as authorities reveal the scale of the operation to foil the attack.
According to prosecutors, when asked by undercover agents about the potential loss of innocent life in the bombings, Arbabsiar replied, 'They want that guy [al-Jubeir] done.
'If the hundred go with him, f**k 'em.'
Attorney General Eric Holder said: 'The criminal complaint unsealed today exposes a deadly plot directed by factions of the Iranian government to assassinate a foreign Ambassador on U.S. soil with explosives.
Arbabsiar was arrested on September 29 in New York at JFK airport, according to Holder.
He was working for the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard and had confessed to a plot.
Officials said he had flown from Iran to Mexico City, via Frankfurt, but had been refused entry to Mexico and had been put on a plane to New York.
Mexico worked closely with U.S. authorities to help foil the alleged plot - issuing an immigration alert on Arbabsiar after U.S. authorities told Mexican counterparts that he was the subject of an arrest warrant.
Julian Ventura, undersecretary for North America, said the alert prompted Mexican immigration officials to turn Arbabsiar away when he tried to enter Mexico on September 28.
Arbabsiar was arrested the next day when he arrived at New York's Kennedy International Airport.
After his arrest, Arbabsiar made phone calls to Shakuri in Iran which were monitored. During the calls, Shakuri allegedly confirmed that Arbabsiar should move forward with the plot to murder the Ambassador and that he should accomplish the task as quickly as possible, stating on October 5, 2011, 'Just do it quickly, it’s late.'
Bombings of the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Buenos Aires and Argentina were also discussed as part of the plan, according to officials.
Shakuri, who is based in Iran, remains at large.
He is a member of Iran’s Quds Force, a special operations unit of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which sponsors and promotes terrorist activities abroad.
The Treasury, meanwhile, identified the Iranian official coordinating the plot as, Abdul-Reza Shahlai, a cousin of Arbabsiar.
Shahlai was three years ago identified as a terrorist by the U.S. Government for organising violence in Iraq.
He is said to have worked with the anti-U.S. Mahdi Army to attack soldiers.
In one of the attacks he is alleged to have planned in January 2007, up to a dozen fighters infiltrated a government building in Karbala, dressed as American security officers.
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