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In May 2011, discussions began secretly in Mexico between a known Los Zetas associate and Quds Force operative Manssor Arbabsiar. The discussion would lead to planning a C-4 detonation at a Washington, D.C. restaurant frequented by Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir. The Quds Force operative did not know that he was being recorded in a DEA operation. Over the course of a few months, several clandestine meetings in Mexico planned strikes against the Israeli Embassy in Washington, plus and the Saudi and Israeli Embassies in Argentina. New opium trafficking lanes between the Middle East and Mexico were also charted. In July...

The shadowy Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani recently visited Moscow to meet with senior Russian leaders, according to two Western intelligence sources, despite a travel ban and U.N. Security Council resolutions barring him from leaving Iran. On July 24, one week before State Secretary John Kerry testified to Senate Armed Services Committee and faced questions about the newly struck nuclear deal, Soleimani arrived in Moscow for meetings with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and President Vladimir Putin. It was not immediately clear what the Iranian leader discussed, but the revelation comes as the United Nations and European Union arms...

Iran is the "most significant" threat to world peace and security, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday after the US accused Tehran of plotting to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington. "We have no quarrel with the Iranian people, but the regime in Tehran represents probably the most significant threat in the world to global peace and security," Harper said. This week, Canada's Foreign Minister John Baird said Ottawa and its partners were considering "consequences" for Iran over the alleged plot.

Americans were stunned on October 11 when the Justice Department unsealed its complaint against Mansour Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old used-car dealer from Corpus Christi now in federal custody, and Ali Gholam Shakuri, a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force. Shakuri remains inside Iran. The pair have been charged with conspiring to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington, Adel Al-Jubeir. As disclosed by the Treasury Department, the plot was coordinated by Arbabsiar’s cousin, Abdul Reza Shahlai, a top Quds Force functionary whom the Treasury designated in 2008 as one of several “individuals and entities fueling violence in Iraq.” Shahlai was...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An Iranian-American man who U.S. officials say has links to Iran's security forces pleaded not guilty in federal court on Monday to plotting to kill the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington in a bomb attack. , 56, who was arrested on September 29 in New York, faces several charges including conspiracy to murder a foreign official, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism. Another man, Gholam Shakuri, was also charged in the plot but is believed to still be in Iran. U.S. officials said he is a...

Encouraging Iran by doing nothing Washington Post (blog) - May 28, 2012 By Jennifer Rubin This is just the latest incident in Iran's war against the West, and against the United States specifically. Iran has facilitated deaths of Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan. It plotted to kill a Saudi diplomat on our soil. And now this. Does the Obama administration retaliate for these acts of aggression? No, and in fairness the Bush administration enacted no penalty either for the deaths of U.S. troops in Iraq or Afghanistan attributable to Iranian IEDs.

WASHINGTON—U.S. authorities said Tuesday they had charged two men in an Iranian-directed plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S. The alleged assassination plot would represent an escalation in the confrontation between mostly Shiite Iran and mostly Sunni Saudi Arabia, two longtime Middle East rivals. The charges are also a rare instance of Washington accusing Iranian groups of fomenting terrorism on U.S. soil. Elements of the Iranian government were ready to spend $1.5 million to hire what they believed was a drug-cartel hit squad from Mexico, said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Prosecutors filed several criminal charges against...

Senior U.S. and Saudi officials as well as a senior member of the diplomatic community in Riyadh told NBC News that Prince Bandar bin Sultan tendered his resignation as ambassador to the U.S. to Crown Prince Abdullah in recent days. The resignation appears to be the result of continuing health problems for the 56-year-old envoy. “You can feel comfortable reporting that,” said the western diplomat confirming what several Saudi and U.S. officials had told NBC News about the Prince's resignation. Bandar is the dean of the Washington diplomatic community. He has been a powerful figure in the U.S. since being...

Saudi Ambassador to London: Bush Has Complexes…' 'The Entire World Fears a Future in the Shadow of Dubya' In a recent column, the Saudi ambassador in London and occasional columnist for the London Arabic daily Al-Hayat, Ghazi Al-Qusaibi, advised Arab regimes not to rule out the possibility of waging war against Israel. On August 9, 2001 he published a scathing attack on US President George W. Bush. Following are excerpts from the article "When George Bush Jr. came to the White House, after a long period of ambiguity and confusion, it was clear from the outset that his behavior stems...