Members of an elite Iranian security force planned to detonate a bomb at a busy Washington restaurant, killing Adel Al-Jubeir, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S. and possibly over 100 bystanders, according to documents filed in New York federal court.
The State Department has listed Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism since 1984.
The current plot was infiltrated by a Drug Enforcement Agency informant posing as a member of a Mexican drug cartel, officials said. The plotters planned to pay a member of the Zetas cartel $1.5 million to carry out the attack, and two advance payments of nearly $50,000 each were wired to an FBI-controlled bank account in August, they said.
An Iranian American, Manssor Arbabsiar, 56, has been arrested in the case. An Iran-based member of the secret Quds Force unit of that country's Revolutionary Guard, Gholam Shakuri, was also charged but is not in custody, officials said
The two men were charged with conspiracy to murder a foreign official, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism, among other counts.
Officials said Arbabsiar had confessed to the charges and was cooperating with authorities in custody.
Mr. Arbabsiar, who was arrested at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on Sept. 29, has confessed to his involvement in the plot, while Mr. Shakuri remains at large, the Justice Department said.
Prosecutors allege that Mr. Arbabsiar approached a Drug Enforcement Administration informant earlier this year and held multiple meetings in Mexico over months with people he believed to be cartel members. In August, the plotters wired a $100,000 down payment to a U.S. government account in New York, the Justice Department said.
President Barack Obama was first briefed on the alleged plot in June and directed government agencies to support the investigation, officials said.
According to a criminal complaint unsealed in New York, Mr. Arbabsiar told the U.S. informant that it would be better if the ambassador could be killed in a simple shooting, but that if the only way to do it was to blow up a restaurant full of people, it was "no big deal,'' according to the complaint.
Mr. Arbabsiar was arrested by U.S. authorities during a layover at JFK after he was denied entry to Mexico, where he and the supposed hit squad had arranged to meet to finalize payment for the plot, the Justice Department said.
Mr. Arbabsiar agreed to cooperate with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. said. The complaint states he told agents he had been instructed by his handlers "to use the code word 'Chevrolet' when discussing the ambassador plot."
The complaint also alleges that Mr. Arbabsiar negotiated plans with the undercover informant to conduct other attacks. A person familiar with the case said the attacks discussed were possible bombings of the Israeli embassies in Washington and Argentina.
According to investigators, Mr. Arbabsiar's Iranian handlers were insistent that the ambassador be killed before any additional attacks.
After he was captured, Mr. Arbabsiar made a recorded phone call to Iran to the other man charged in the plot, Mr. Shakuri, in which prosecutors say Mr. Shakuri, using the code word for the operation, again gave the go-ahead to the attack on the ambassador.
"Just do it quickly, it's late,'' Mr. Shakuri allegedly said.
According to prosecutors, Mr. Arbabsiar told investigators he was recruited and directed by senior members of Iran's Qods Force, which the U.S. described as a special-operations unit of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Tensions have risen this year between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which long have struggled for political dominance in the Mideast. During the "Arab Spring," thousands of Bahraini citizens, the majority of whom are Shiite, protested against their ruler, a Sunni king who is favored by Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia deployed hundreds of troops to support the Bahraini king and accused Iran of backing the protests and trying to destabilize the region.
Saudi Arabia recently negotiated a $60 billion arms deal with the U.S., and it has said it would bulk up its armed forces.
The Treasury Department said Tuesday it has sanctioned five people including four senior Qods Force officers whom the U.S. connected to the alleged assassination plot. Americans are prohibited from engaging in transactions with the five people and any assets they may hold in the U.S. are frozen, Treasury said.
White House National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said the disruption of the plot was "a significant achievement by our intelligence and law enforcement agencies."
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