Operation Chevrolet
Under the code name Operation Chevrolet (also: Operation Red Coalition ), an (ultimately foiled) assassination attempt on Adel al-Jubeir , Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States , was allegedly planned in 2011 .
history
On October 11, 2011, US Attorney General Eric Holder announced to the press that two Iranian agents had planned a bomb attack in Washington. Your goal was to kill the ambassador of Saudi Arabia. A little later, US President Barack Obama announced that even if high circles in the Iranian government had not known about the plan, they were responsible.
According to the US authorities, Manssor Arbabsiar , who has both US and Iranian citizenship , and Gholam Shakuri are alleged masterminds . The US Department of Justice also suspects elements of the Iranian leadership, in particular the Al-Quds unit under the Revolutionary Guard , of which Shakuri is a high-ranking member, behind the attack.
According to the media, the plot was named after the car brand Chevrolet , as one of the two alleged perpetrators, Manssor Arbabisar, was a car dealer.
Al-Jubeir was supposed to be killed in a bomb attack on a restaurant he frequented in Washington, DC . Arbabisar turned to alleged members of the Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas , who carried out the attack and received $ 1.5 million for it. In fact, however, he came across an informant from the US anti-drug agency DEA , which the FBI turned on. Arbabisar was arrested at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport on September 29, while Shakuri is on the run. The attack plans were made public on October 11, 2011.
On October 20, Manssor Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri were charged by the New York City Prosecutor's office with plans to kill a foreign official, use weapons of mass destruction, and cross-border terrorism. On October 24, Arbabsiar pleaded " not guilty ".
On November 16, Saudi Arabia submitted a draft resolution to the General Assembly of the United Nations condemning the events and isolating those involved.
Web links
- Wolfgang Günter Lerch: Not without my enemy. Saudi-Iranian animosity. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . October 19, 2011, accessed on October 20, 2011 (analysis of the background to the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran).
Individual evidence
- ↑ USA accuse Iran of a murder plot , sueddeutsche.de, October 11, 2011. (Retrieved November 4, 2011).
- ↑ Obama threatens Iran with “toughest sanctions” , sueddeutsche.de, October 14, 2011. (Accessed November 4, 2011).
- ↑ US Accuses Iranians of Plotting to Kill Saudi Envoy , The New York Times , October 12, 2011. (Retrieved October 12, 2011.)
- ^ Codeword 'Chevrolet': The Screenplay of the Murder Plot , DiePresse.com , October 12, 2011. Accessed October 12, 2011.
- ↑ Attack plans in Washington - Operation Chevrolet , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 12, 2011. (Accessed October 12, 2011.)
- ^ Indictment in the murder plot against the Saudi ambassador. In: ORF . October 21, 2011, accessed October 21, 2011 .
- ↑ US Iranians plead not guilty. In: ORF . October 25, 2011, accessed October 25, 2011 .
- ↑ Saudi Arabia demands UN resolution on murder plot. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . November 17, 2011, accessed November 17, 2011 .