Britain freezes assets of suspects in alleged Iranian plot
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REPORTING FROM LONDON -– Britain has followed the United States in freezing the assets of five men implicated in an alleged Iranian plot to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington.
Two of the men have been charged in the U.S. in connection with the alleged scheme, which authorities said entailed paying a Mexican drug cartel $1.5 million to kill Saudi envoy Adel al-Jubeir in a bomb attack on a Washington restaurant.
The U.S. suspects Iran’s Revolutionary Guard of being behind the bizarre assassination plot, which FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III compared to a ‘Hollywood script.’
Tehran has denied any involvement.
The two men charged in the case are Iranian American Manssor Arbabsiar, 56, who is in jail, and Gholam Shakuri, who is believed to be in Iran. Shakuri and the other three men whose assets have been frozen are allegedly members of Iran’s Quds Force, a shadowy unit within the elite Revolutionary Guard and suspected orchestrator of the plot.
Arbabsiar and Shakuri have been charged with conspiracy to murder a foreign official, to commit a terrorist act and to use weapons of mass destruction. U.S. officials say that Arbabsiar has confessed and is cooperating with their investigation.
The move by the British Treasury to freeze the men’s assets was announced late Monday.
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-- Henry Chu
