Iran criticizes Saudi U.N. resolution

Iran is sharply criticizing a draft U.N. General Assembly resolution because it refers to an alleged Iranian plot against a Saudi ambassador, an assertion the Islamic republic calls "unsubstantiated."

In addition, a high-ranking Iranian official visiting the United Nations on Wednesday criticized the United States and other Western countries for unfairly targeting his country for its nuclear program.

The Saudi resolution, which condemns terrorism and attacks on diplomats, "deplores that plot" and makes note of a letter from the United States reporting what it characterizes as an "Iranian plot."

The resolution also calls on Iran "to comply with all of its obligations under international law" and to cooperate in "seeking to bring to justice" the people who planned to kill the envoy.

It was expected to be introduced in a meeting Wednesday afternoon and may come to a vote by the entire General Assembly on Friday, a Saudi U.N. mission spokesman said.

Mohammad Khazaee, Iranian ambassador to the United Nations, said it would be a "gross disservice" to put "hypothetical, circumstantial and unsubstantiated matters" on the General Assembly's agenda. The United States says Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Quds Force is behind the plot, but Iran denies the accusation. Such a resolution "would significantly undermine the role, authority, integrity, and credibility of the General Assembly as the highest and universal political body of the United Nations," Khazaee said.

The draft makes references to the U.N. global counterterrorism strategy. But Iran contends the United States exploits the document and undermines it. It said the United States has backed terror acts against Iranians, including diplomats.

"The United States' attitude with regard to the alleged plot, which began with an explosive media campaign against Iran, and its long-standing hostile policies, is unconstructive and reveals once again the latter's ill intentions," Khazaee said.

Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, and Gholam Shakuri, an Iran-based member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, have been accused of conspiring to hire hit men from a Mexican drug cartel to bomb a restaurant where the ambassador would have been.

Authorities developed the case against the suspects with the help of an undercover informant posing as an associate of a Mexican drug cartel, according to officials and an FBI agent's affidavit.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Javad Larijani, the secretary general for Iran's High Council for Human Rights, told reporters that the recent International Atomic Energy Agency report about Iran's nuclear program was "a disgrace for the agency."

"It doesn't include any evidence," he said. "It is based on a laptop which was given to them by the United States four years ago."

The report, which was released last week, stated that Iran was acquiring the technology for a nuclear weapons program.

Larijani reiterated his country's position that its program is exclusively of a civilian nature.

Asked about the nuclear weapons trigger the report says Iran has been working on, he called it a "laughable allegation," saying the device is used in several "technological devices." He added that the "United States and a number of European countries, they do not want this issue to be settled. They want to keep that as a vehicle of pressure on Iran."

Larijani continued chastising the United States by saying that "American policy in the region is falling apart. It is witnessing drastic failures, especially in Afghanistan." He said that "when President Obama came to power and promised change, I was hopeful we could formalize change, but I think this hope was wrong totally."

He was also asked about the uprising going on in neighboring Syria, an Iranian ally. He said that "any incitement to violence by the United States and Western countries and regional countries to export and send armed groups inside Syria" or to recommend that people use a gun in the uprising is very dangerous.

"All the hands should be cut off from this kind of interference," he said.

Body of Saudi crown prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz arrives in Riyadh

The body of Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, the heir to the Saudi throne who died in New York on Saturday, arrived Monday in the Saudi capital, greeted by crowds of people, authorities and troops.

The body was flown into Riyadh Air Base, according to two Saudi government officials.

The death of Sultan, the half-brother of King Abdullah, raises succession questions in the key oil-producing country at a time of turmoil in the Arab world.

Sultan was thought to be in his 80s. He had been ill for some time -- various reports indicated he was battling cancer -- and was receiving treatment in a New York hospital at the time of his death.

His burial is scheduled for Tuesday, officials have said.

Sultan had served for decades as the Saudi defense minister. President Barack Obama called him a "valued friend" of the United States.

Ascension to the Saudi throne does not pass from father to son. Instead, it's a complex process, and decisions in the conservative kingdom are often cloaked in secrecy.

King Abdullah set up the Allegiance Council in 2006 to allow for more transparency in the succession. It was unclear when the group, made up of members of the royal family, will be employed to make a decision on the next crown prince.

Sultan's death leaves his brother Nayef, a reputed conservative, as the likely successor. Nayef has served as the Saudi interior minister since 1975 and oversaw the kingdom's counterterrorism efforts.

Sultan took a leading role in Saudi Arabia's involvement in the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq, heading a coalition of about half a million troops from more than 30 countries.

Abdullah left a hospital in Riyadh on Saturday following successful back surgery, the Saudi Press Agency reported. It was the third back surgery in the past year for the 87-year-old king.

Man accused of plotting to kill Saudi ambassador

Manssor Arbabsiar, one of two men implicated in an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, pleaded not guilty Monday in federal court in New York.

The second man indicted in the alleged plot, Gholam Shakuri, remains at large.

Judge John Keenan scheduled the next court date in the case for December 21 to allow the defense time to study documents involved in the discovery process, some of which are classified.

U.S. officials arrested Arbabsiar, 56, on suspicion that he conspired with Shakuri, allegedly an Iran-based member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, to hire hit men from a Mexican drug cartel to set off a bomb at a restaurant to be visited by Adel Al-Jubeir, the Saudi ambassador.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has said the assassination-for-hire accusations are baseless.
U.S. officials have said the alleged scheme involved a connection to the Quds Force, a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

Iranian press reports have said Shakuri is an agent of an exiled Iranian opposition group.

In an interview Saturday with CNN's Fareed Zakaria, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed the allegations.

"Do we need really to kill the ambassador of a brotherly country? What is the reason and the interest behind that?" he said. "We never have any intention to hurt Saudi Arabia. Do we really want to do it in the United States? And is that the way, really?"

Authorities developed the case against the suspects with the help of an undercover informant posing as an associate of a Mexican drug cartel, according to officials and an FBI agent's affidavit.

Arbabsiar and the informant allegedly discussed using explosives to kill the ambassador, possibly in a crowded restaurant, according to the affidavit.

The informant named $1.5 million as his price, it said. Arbabsiar told the informant his "cousin" has deep pockets, court documents say, and allegedly sent $100,000 intended as a down payment.

According to the five-count indictment, Arbabsiar wired money to an undercover bank account maintained by the FBI. In the spring, Shakuri provided money to Arbabsiar for expenses, it contends.

Arbabsiar was arrested in September.

Both defendants are charged with conspiracy to murder a foreign official; conspiracy to engage in foreign travel and use interstate and foreign commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire; conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction (explosives); and conspiracy to commit an act of international terrorism transcending national boundaries.

Arbabsiar also is charged with a count of foreign travel and use of interstate and foreign commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, prosecutors said.