Iran's 'chilling' assassination plot: Time to get tougher with Tehran?

Washington accuses Tehran of trying to hire Mexican drug-mafia killers to murder Saudi Arabia's ambassador on U.S. soil — as strange as that sounds

 A courtroom sketch of Manssor Arbabsiar, one of the men arrested in connection with an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador on American soil.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg)

The Justice Department and the FBI said on Tuesday that they had foiled a "chilling" Iranian plot to either hire Mexican drug-cartel hitmen to kill Saudi Arabia's ambassador on American soil, or bomb the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington. Vice President Joe Biden called the alleged scheme "an outrageous act," and said the Obama administration would unite the world against Tehran and possibly impose new sanctions. Iran's parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, said the accusations were fraudulent, and part of a "childish game" to divert attention from America's problems. Is this alleged plot evidence that the threat from Iran is getting out of control?

The U.S. can't let this one go: The Iranian military's threats against the U.S. are getting "more direct" every day, says Ali Alfoneh at CNN. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, whose foreign arm Washington accuses of masterminding the terror plot, has already openly threatened suicide attacks against Saudi Arabia if it doesn't remove its troops from Bahrain. Washington has to make the Islamic Republic "pay a price for its adventurist policies," or next time we might not be so lucky.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us