UN General Assembly "deplores" alleged plot to kill Saudi envoy to U.S.

The UN General Assembly on Friday adopted a resolution which "deplores the plot to assassinate" the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, and calls upon Iran "to comply with all of its obligations under international law." Iran has strongly denied its involvement in the alleged plot. The draft resolution, proposed by Saudi Arabia and supported by the United States, received 106 votes in favor, nine against and 40 abstentions. The resolution "deplores the plot to assassinate the ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United States of America," and "calls upon the Islamic Republic of Iran to comply with all of its obligations under international law, including the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Internationally Protected Persons, particularly with respect to its obligations to provide law enforcement assistance, and to cooperate with States to bring to justice all those who participated in the planning, sponsoring, organization and attempted execution of the plot to assassinate the ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia." Countries such as Bolivia, Sudan and Venezuela said before or after the voting that due to a lack of solid evidence to support the allegation, the adoption would "create a dangerous precedent" in the international relations. Before the voting, Mohammad Khazaee, permanent representative of Iran to the UN, told the UN General Assembly that if it passes a resolution unchanged condemning Iran's supposed role in an alleged plot against a Saudi diplomat, the assembly's legitimacy could be undermined. "If the members of the General Assembly allow this draft to pass unamended, the General Assembly would run the risk of setting a dangerous precedent and turning into a venue for settling political scores," said Khazaee. In October, the U.S. government accused Manssor Arbabsayara,a U. S. citizen holding American and Iranian passports, as well as GholamShakuri, a member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of sponsoring and promoting terrorism abroad, including a plot to kill the Saudienvoy. Arbabsayara has been arrested in the U.S. while Shakuri remains in Iran. Also at the plenary meeting of the General Assembly, Iran submitted several amendments to the draft resolution that, as proposed, change the resolution to make it about the protection of diplomatic and other internationally protected personnel in general. But they were not adopted as more than 90 countries voted against. "Enough of terrorism, enough of attacking diplomats and endangering their safety, enough to attacks on diplomatic missions, enough to conspiracies, enough to the use of assassination as a means to express influence intimidate or impose the will," Abdallah Yahya Al-Mouallimi, permanent representative of Saudi Arabia to the UN, told the General Assembly.