The United Nations General Assembly has approved a resolution condemning an alleged plot to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States.
The assembly on Friday did not directly accuse Iran of being behind the assassination plot but it urged Tehran to cooperate in the investigation.
The United States charged in October that agents linked to Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard were involved in a plot to kill Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir at a restaurant in Washington.
Iran has denied any involvement. Iran’s ambassador to the U.N., Mohammad Khazaee, tried unsuccessfully to have all references to Tehran removed from the Saudi-sponsored resolution. He later said bringing this matter before the General Assembly set a “dangerous precedent” for settling political scores.
One of the men charged in the scheme – an Iranian with U.S. citizenship – was arrested and has pleaded not guilty. A second man is believed to be in Iran and has not been apprehended.
The two allegedly hired a man they believed to be a member of a Mexican drug cartel to carry out the attack – either through a bombing or by shooting the ambassador. But the would-be assassin was an informant on the payroll of U.S. authorities and told them the details of the plot, stopping it before it could play out.