Plot to murder Saudi diplomat was 'amateur hour', claims US

An alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington was today labelled "amateur hour" by US officials.

Intelligence sources said the bungled plan was an "unusually clumsy" operation by Iran's foreign action unit, the Quds Force.

Lawyers claimed covert operative Manssor Arbabsiar recruited a woman he met while working as a used car dealer to find him a Mexican drug dealer who would be willing to carry out the attack.

It was also claimed the money promised as payment for the killing of Adel Al-Jubeir - by blowing him up while he was at his favourite restaurant - would have been easily traceable. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the foiled plot illustrated a "dangerous escalation" of an Iranian pattern of franchising terror abroad.

"We will work closely with our international partners to increase Iran's isolation and the pressure on its government and we call upon other nations to join us in condemning this threat to international peace and security," she said.

The US is set to push for more sanctions on Iran following action over its nuclear programme. It believes the planned killing of Mr Al-Jubeir was conceived to prove such an operation could be carried out, encouraging the agency to attempt further attacks.

Two men, including a member of the Quds Force, have been charged with conspiring to kill. US officials believe Iran hoped the attack would be blamed on al Qaeda. That would strike at two of Iran's chief enemies - the US and Saudi Arabia, which is staging a diplomatic cold war against Iran in a bid for influence across the Gulf and Middle East.

Iran denies the plot and says it was fabricated to cause a rift between Sunni muslims, a majority in Saudi Arabia, and Shia muslims in Iran.

The US blames the Quds Force for some of the worst terrorist acts against its troops overseas, including the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19. More recently, the group has smuggled long-range rockets into Iraq for use by Shia militants.