U.S. authorities announced earlier this week that they had uncovered a plot by Iran to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S. Manssor Arbabsiar, an Iranian-born U.S. citizen living in Texas, was arrested at the end of September in connection with the plot, and has been charged in connection with the plot. According to the complaint against him, Arbabsiar and another man, Gholam Shakuri, who remains at large in Iran, planned to use money from Iran to pay a Mexican drug cartel to kill Abel al-Jubeir, the Saudi Arabian ambassador. Arbabsiar told a DEA informant that he planned to kill the ambassador in a shooting on U.S. soil, but that he would also bomb an entire American restaurant of people if that was necessary. It is alleged, although still unclear, that top-level Iranian officials knew about the plot and planned to fund it. Iranian officials claim the allegations are false and that the U.S. is attempting to further divide an already divided region of the world.
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203633104576625163343308154.html?mod=ITP_pageone_0
This demonstrates a rather brazen escalation of hostilities between the United States and Iran. With tensions already heightened between the nations, it is particularly alarming that Iran would sponsor an act of terror within the United States. If this attack had been carried out, and eventually linked back to Iran, would this be an offense of such grave nature as to warrant military strikes by the United States against Iran?
Despite the gravity of the Iranian plot, it does not appear that military strikes are even on the table for the Obama administration at this juncture. A NY Times article from October 13th noted that Obama’s foreign policy stance will remain unchanged and will only seek international condemnation and further sanctions on Iranian industry and high ranking Revolutionary Guard officials.
This incident also begs the question: who authorized this? Was it Ali Khamenei, Ahmandinejad, or, possible, a rogue element within the central government?