apologize and pay a financial penalty for charging Iran with involvement in a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland dismissed the letter Tuesday in pointedly undiplomatic language, calling it a “rant.”
“It was about seven pages,” she said. “It was a rant. It was full of all kinds of denials. There was not a lot new in there from our perspective.”
While many in the West are questioning the US charges, the Islamic Republic is clearly taking the matter very seriously and has gone into full defensive crouch.
It was clearly stunned when the court charges were filed last month. It took six days before the Supreme Leader and President Ahmadi-nejad responded to the charges. Such long silences indicate the leadership is having an internal debate and is uncertain how to respond to an event.
The Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday that it has sent letters to many foreign governments explaining Iran’s position and seeking to rebut the charges.
The letter to Washington, however, was a stunning novelty that seemed to reflect a tactical decision that the best defense was a good offense. Whether this offense is good, however, remains to be determined.
State Department sources said the letter called for a US apology for alleging Iran was involved in a murder plot and demanded unspecified cash compensation for “material and moral damages for this baseless accusation.”
The United States has actually carefully avoided accusing the highest reaches of the Iranian government of being involved in the murder plot. It has filed charges against an Iranian-American and against one of his contacts, a colonel in the Qods Force, the external operations branch of the Pasdaran (Revolutionary Guards).
Many officials have said they believe such a plot would not be carried out without approval from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi, but they have also carefully said they have no evidence of any involvement by Khamenehi, just supposition.
Prosecutors say they will present evidence in court of Qods Force involvement—first, payment of $100,000 to the presumed assassin that came from a Pasdar account the US government had been monitoring; second, tapes of telephone conversations that the accused Iranian-American, Manssor Arbabsiar, had with his Qods Force contact, Colonel Gholam Shakuri.
Interpol, meanwhile, has sent a letter to Iran asking for information on Shakuri, presumably acting at the request of the United States.
Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi, ridiculed that request, saying, “There are 150 Gholam Shakuris.” But the request didn’t ask about any Gholam Shakuri but about he Gholam Shakuri who is an officer of the Qods Force. The United States identified him and his role more than two years ago and publicly sanctioned him then.
But Salehi disingenuously said, “Our investigation shows a certain Gholam Shakuri who lives in the United States and is a member of the Mojahedin-e Khalq,”
In the US Congress, some members have urged war as a response to the assassination plot. But the more interesting point is that none of the eight men and women seeking the GOP presidential nomination have called for war. They have had little to say about any response to the plot.
Most GOP foreign policy experts have also remained quiet or even downplayed the need for a military response. Most Republicans still feel the party was badly stung by President Bush’s invasion of Iraq in 2003 and do not see good to come from recommending military responses to foreign problems. In fact, legions of Republicans assailed President Obama last spring for involving the United States in the Libyan overthrow of Moammar Qadhdhafi’s regime.