US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday denounced an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador on American soil as a 'dangerous escalation' by Tehran.
As the United States began individual consultations with UN Security Council ambassadors -- a possible precursor to international condemnation or some other action -- Clinton reiterated that Iran must be "held accountable."
The plot is "a flagrant violation of international and US law and a dangerous escalation of the Iranian government's long-standing use of political violence and sponsorship of terrorism," Clinton said.
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"We call upon other nations to join us in condemning this threat to international peace and security," the top US diplomat told journalists at a think-tank in Washington. "Iran must be held accountable for its actions."
Clinton said the plot was "directed by elements of the Iranian government," and said this "kind of reckless act undermines international norms and the international system."
The US has "increased our sanctions on individuals within the Iranian government who are associated with this plot and Iran's support for terrorism," she said.
Clinton's spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the United States is "looking for countries to join us in increasing the political and economic pressure on Iran," adding the political pressure would involve condemning Iran.
She added that the United States was putting renewed emphasis on sanctions given that a number of countries are not fully enforcing the existing ones.
The United States would like "everybody redoubling their efforts to enforce UN sanctions, national sanctions, regional sanctions and to take more sanctioning measures," Nuland told reporters.
Iran warned the United States to shy away from any confrontation over what Tehran called baseless allegations that it plotted to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington.
The US Justice Department on Tuesday named two Iranian suspects as Manssor Arbabsiar, 56, a naturalized US citizen, and Gholam Shakuri, said to be an Iran-based member of the Quds Force, a unit of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Shakuri remains at large while Arbabsiar was arrested on September 29 at New York's John F Kennedy International Airport and appeared in court Tuesday in Manhattan. His lawyer said he would plead not guilty.
US officials say the case was broken open by a paid US source posing as a member of a Mexico-based drug cartel, which the defendants believed would provide explosives for the attack on the ambassador.
Mexico said it cooperated closely with the US investigation, and said Arbabsiar was denied entry and put on a flight to New York, where he was arrested by US authorities.
Nuland also said that Clinton's deputy William Burns earlier Wednesday briefed ambassadors from countries around the world about the plot and the indictment.
The State Department also sent messages to all US ambassadors and chiefs of missions overseas to brief them on the plot.
IRAN AIRLINE SANCTIONED
The US Treasury Department has hit Iran's Mahan Air with sanctions, saying it secretly transported members of a military force accused of plotting to kill the Saudi ambassador on US soil.
The Treasury Department said commercial carrier Mahan Air transported members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp-Qods Force, a force directly linked to the plot, and Hezbollah across the Middle East.
Any of the airline's assets in the United States will now be frozen and US citizens will be barred from doing business with the firm.
The announcement came a day after Washington levelled the accusations at Tehran and the Treasury Department moved to block the assets of five individuals directly linked to the alleged assassination plot, which has sent diplomatic shockwaves around the world.
The Treasury Department accused Mahan Air of ferrying Iranian operatives between Iran and Syria for military training and Revolutionary Guards officers in and out of Iraq, and of transporting members of Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which the US deems a terrorist organisation.
"Mahan Air's close coordination with the IRGC-QF, secretly ferrying operatives, weapons and funds on its flights, reveals yet another facet of the IRGC's extensive infiltration of Iran's commercial sector to facilitate its support for terrorism," said the Treasury's sanctions czar David Cohen.
"Following the revelation about the IRGC-QF's use of the international financial system to fund its murder-for-hire plot, today's action highlights further the undeniable risks of doing business with Iran.
