A Hazy Plot

The United States has had terrible relations with Iran for many years — now, directly focused on the nuclear ambitions of the ayatollahs. But up until now, it has never accused Tehran of organizing a terrorist plot on its own soil, as happened last week when president Obama accused the Iranian regime of orchestrating the assassination of the Saudi ambassador in Washington, through a Mexican hit-man linked to drug trafficking. According to the Department of Justice, the plot had been organized by the Jerusalem Force (Al Quds), a secret unit of the elite Revolutionary Guards, basically in charge of international operations.

It is true that the historic antagonism between Riyadh and Tehran — confronted by their religious differences and their affinity for having a decisive influence in the Muslim world — has increased in recent months. The Arab riots have placed the two regional powers in the position to get the most possible out of their client regimes. It’s about Syria by Iran, and Bahrain or Yemen in the case of Saudi Arabia, among others. But this rivalry doesn’t seem to be a sufficient motive to explain an action as spectacular as the alleged assassination of the Saudi ambassador in the United States, which would raise immediate and forceful retaliation. At a time in which Iran, already under intense international scrutiny for its atomic defiance, intends to also soften the setback for their strategic interests is the budding democratization of North Africa and the Middle East.

The many questions of the case require particular caution. Washington and its allies would commit a grave error if they proceed in their punishment of Iran without having first publicly substantiating the charge. The measures taken so far — sanctions against five individuals in total — appear to be the only sensible measures for such a nebulous matter.