Based on unproven allegations and no trial of the accused man, US President Obama has accused Iran of planning to assassinate the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the US, and has threatened “the toughest sanctions” against Iran. These are thought to include sanctions on Iran’s Central Bank which would have the effect of bringing the country’s foreign trade to a halt, a “world boycott” of Iranian oil and a military blockade of the country – all of which would be seen as an act of war by Iran. Obama has not ruled out a direct attack. With his accusations being repeated by Clinton and others, and with some saying that the allegations amount to an act of war, the accused has no chance of a fair trial in the US and the truth will therefore never be known.
What is known is that the man accused is a second-hand car dealer from Corpus Christie, Texas with mental health problems and a string of failed businesses behind him and is also a US citizen. He is accused of paying the Zeta drugs mafia in Mexico to kill the Saudi Ambassador either by shooting him in a restaurant or with car bombs outside the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington. The Zeta drugs mafia is Mexico’s most bloodthirsty gang and would never cross the border and invite the kind of US “law enforcement heat” that the plot would have brought down on them. A $100,000 deposit for the assassination was allegedly transferred from Iran, but this would be impossible because it would be against US law and US sanctions.
So there is widespread scepticism about the alleged plot both across the US and the world with the accused being described more like a “Mr Bean character than 007” with many believing it has been faked to justify a war in the same way as the Gulf of Tonkin incident and the Iraqi “weapons of mass destruction”. Would Iran have been so stupid as to risk a war with its three main adversaries, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the US at the same time? That’s very doubtful. Yet Britain’s Foreign Secretary jumped on the bandwagon to support the allegation and call for action, and the Saudi government has demanded that Iran pay a “high price”. So here we go again. ■