FM condemns US media, political show against Iran

The Iranian Foreign Ministry in a statement forcefully rejected the US accusation that Tehran was involved in an alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington, and stressed that the claims are a media and political show with no "legal rationale".In a statement circulated by Iran's worldwide embassies, the foreign ministry said Manssor Arbabsiar - the man accused by the US of trying to assassinate the ambassador - had no links to the country. "The arrested suspect allegedly involved in the plot has lived in the United States for the past 16 years and has had no link to Islamic Republic of Iran entities," the statement asserted. "Unilaterally announcing accusations against an American citizen residing in the US without showing documentation and creating a media wave against Iran is in no way compatible with legal logic, and can only be a purely media and political show." The US had alleged that Iran had attempted to hire a Mexican drug gang to assassinate the Saudi ambassador, Adel Al-Jubeir. The ministry said the accusations had been leveled by "an obscure, anonymous secret agent" and were based on "statements, guesses and suppositions by individuals involved in drug smuggling!" No admissible proof had been offered, it added, declaring that "such baseless allegations would never stand up in a proper, neutral courtroom". The statement said Iran "categorically denies" accusations made by the US, and said the accusation "reminds everyone that such illogical allegations are parts of an immature scenario and political show, and are nothing but a media smear campaign created by Washington". Washington had made the accusations in order to divert attention from the Occupy Wall Street protests, and to divert attention "from the Islamic Awakening in the region", it said. It also argued that Iran was one of the main victims of terrorism, with over 16,000 Iranians killed by terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last three decades. Two men were charged in New York federal court on Tuesday in the alleged plot. Arbabsiar is a 56-year-old naturalized US citizen. In May 2011, the criminal complaint says, he approached someone he believed to be a member of the vicious Mexican drug cartel, Los Zetas, for help with an attack on the Saudi Ambassador to Washington Adel al-Jubeir. The man he approached turned out to be an informant for US drug agents, it says. The government charges that Arbabsiar had been told by his cousin Abdul Reza Shahlai to recruit a drug trafficker for a hitman job.