Iran's supreme leader warned the United States on Sundaythat any measures taken against Tehran over an alleged plot to assassinate theSaudi ambassador to Washington would elicit a "resolute" response.
Two men, including a member of the Iranian special foreignactions unit known as the Quds Force, have been charged in New York federalcourt with conspiring to kill the Saudi diplomat, Adel Al-Jubeir. U.S.officials have said no one was ever in any immediate danger from the plot.
"If U.S. officials have some delusions, (they must)know that any unsuitable act, whether political or security, will meet aresolute response from the Iranian nation," state TV quoted Supreme LeaderAyatollah Ali Khamenei as saying.
Iran also demanded that a diplomat be allowed to visit oneof the men in prison.
Khamenei's comments may reflect Iranian concerns thatWashington would use the Al-Jubeir case to ratchet up sanctions and recruitinternational allies to try to further isolate Tehran.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has beenblunt in saying the United States would use the allegations as leverage withother countries that have been reluctant to apply harsh sanctions or penaltiesagainst Iran.
Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters inIran, said that the U.S. accused Iran of terror in order to divert attentionfrom its economic woes and from the Occupy Wall Street protest movement.
"By attributing an absurd and meaningless accusation toa few Iranians, they tried ... to show that Iran is a supporter of terrorism.... This conspiracy didn't work and won't work," he said.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for his part,dismissed the U.S. accusations as a fabricated "scenario."
"Iran is a civilized nation and doesn't need to resortto assassination," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying Sunday by the officialIRNA news agency. "The culture of terror belongs to you," he said,addressing the United States.
Iranian officials have consistently denied the allegationssince they first emerged last week. An earlier statement by Khamenei onSaturday, and Ahmadinejad's remarks on Sunday, were the first comments made bythe country's two highest leaders.
In a formal statement released Saturday, the Iraniangovernment said it has no connection to Manssor Arbabsiar, the man arrested inthe alleged plot.
On Sunday Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned the Swiss Charged'Affairs to Tehran to demand consular access to Arbabsiar.
"Offering personal information about the accused andproviding consular access to him is an obligation of the U.S. government. Anydelay is contrary to international law," a report on Iranian state TV'swebsite said.
The Swiss Embassy handles American interests because theU.S. and Iran do not have diplomatic relations,
Arbabsiar is a 56-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen who alsohad an Iranian passport. In May 2011, the criminal complaint says, heapproached someone he believed to be a member of the vicious Mexicannarco-terror group Los Zetas for help with an attack on a Saudi embassy. Theman he approached turned out to be an informant for U.S. drug agents, it says.
The U.S. charges that Arbabsiar had been told by his cousinAbdul Reza Shahlai, a high-ranking member of the Quds Force, to recruit a drugtrafficker because drug gangs have a reputation for assassinations.
Iranian lawmakers and analysts have said Iran would notbenefit from killing the Saudi ambassador in Washington, even if it might havesought to punish its Saudi rivals for intervening in Bahrain to crush aShiite-led uprising there. Majority Shiite Iran regarded with deep suspicion onthe Arab side of the Gulf, which is largely Sunni.
Political analyst Sadeq Zibakalam said the accusations werepart of a U.S. strategy to encircle Iran.
"The Americans seek to close the circle around Iran atthe international level. ... It's a prelude to transferring Iran's dossier tothe U.N. Security Council," he said in comments posted on the fararu.comnews website Sunday.
Zibakalam, however, said there was no plausible or logicalreason for Iran to assassinate the Saudi envoy in Washington.
"If we assume that Iranian officials sought to punishthe Saudis for their intervention in Bahrain, there were tens of other venuessuch as Turkey, India and Pakistan where Iran could carry out an assassinationwith the least political costs and consequences, not in U.S.," he said.