Iran says U.S. plot suspect is anti-Tehran militant

Iran has complained to the United Nations about a U.S. accusation it tried to assassinate a Saudi diplomat, saying one of the alleged plotters Washington calls an Iranian military official is really a member of an anti-Tehran rebel group.Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said yesterday the plot was part of a multi-pronged U.S. strategy to smear Tehran, a process he said would continue next week when the U.N. nuclear agency publishes a report western diplomats say will contain new evidence about Iran's nuclear program.The complaint to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon turned the U.S. accusation that Tehran supports terrorism back onto Washington, Salehi said."This letter contains our complaint about the plots of the United States, reliable information that we have of the U.S. involvement in those plots," he said in a news conference broadcast live on the English language channel Press TV.On its website, Press TV reported the letter said a suspect who U.S. prosecutors have identified as an Iranian military official is actually a member of the exiled Iranian rebel group Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO).One of two men charged with plotting to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington, 56-year-old Iranian-American Manssor Arbabsiar, pleaded not guilty at a court hearing in New York last month.The second, Gholam Shakuri, is still at large and U.S. officials say he is a member of the Quds Force, an arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, who approved the plan to hire Mexican gangsters to murder Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir.The semi-official Mehr news agency reported on October 17 that Shakuri was a member of the MKO, also known as the People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI), based in Iraq and listed as a terrorist group by the United States.Citing "informed sources," Mehr said Shakuri had traveled to Washington and to the MKO base at Camp Ashraf in Iraq.Iranian officials did not initially comment on the report which said Interpol had discovered Shakuri's true identity, but Press TV reported on Saturday it was now in the letter delivered to Ban.
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