Jewish communities in the United States and Argentina congratulated U.S. law enforcement officials for foiling a terror plot targeting the Israeli embassies in Washington, D.C., and Buenos Aires.
Jewish groups in the U.S. said the suspected conspiracy by two Iranian men to kill the Saudi ambassador and blow up the Israeli Embassy in Washington was consistent with the violence espoused by the Islamic Republic, reported the Jerusalem Post.
“We have long expressed concern about the ties between international terrorist networks and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which gave direction to this plot through its Al-Quds Brigades,” said Richard Stone and Malcolm Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
Two men, including a member of Iran’s special foreign actions unit known as the Quds Force, were charged in New York federal court with conspiring to kill the Saudi diplomat, Adel Al Jubeir. Manssor Arbabsiar, 56, a U.S. citizen who also holds an Iranian passport, was charged along with Gholam Shakuri, who authorities said was a Quds Force member and is still at large in Iran.
The Quds Force is also blamed for being behind two terror attacks in Buenos Aires, against the Israeli Embassy in 1992 and a Jewish cultural center in 1994 that killed 85 people.
Arbabsiar, arrested Sept. 29 in New York, faces life in prison if convicted, prosecutors said. He also is being sought through Interpol for his alleged role in the 1994 bombing in Argentina. — ap