By . Daily Mail Reporter . Last updated at 2:49 AM on 31st October 2011 . An American official says Iran has formally complained to the U.S. over claims the Iranian government was involved in an alleged plot to kill Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States. The official said that the U.S. received a diplomatic note on Friday expressing displeasure with the charges that were levelled earlier this month.  Iran has already denied the allegations. The complaint calls on the U.S. to apologise publicly to Iran for the 'material and moral damages' caused by 'this baseless accusation', an Iranian source told NBC News. Scroll down for video . Plot: Manssor Arbabsiar (left) is accused of a terror plot to murder Saudi ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir (right) It adds that the accusations violated . 'international rules and regulations' but that deception has become 'a . permanent part of statecraft in the U.S.' The note was delivered through the . Swiss embassy in Tehran, which represents U.S. interests in Iran since . the two countries don't have diplomatic relations. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private diplomatic exchange. Iran has angrily denied charges . brought by U.S. federal prosecutors that an Iranian government agent was . involved in plotting the assassination of the Saudi ambassador. Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old U.S. citizen who also holds an Iranian passport, is due to appear in court . on December 21 accused of trying to hire a Mexican drugs cartel to carry . out the killing. Detained: Arbabsiar appearing before Judge Michael Dolinger and United States Assistant US Attorney Glen Kopp during his arraignment in New York . Appearance: These court sketches show Magistrate . Judge Michael Dolinger (left) presiding over the arraignment of Manssor . Arbabsiar (right) at Manhattan federal court . He is accused of plotting to kill Adel Al-Jubeir by bombing a restaurant, before setting off . blasts at the Saudi and Israeli embassies. The devastating plan was foiled after Arbabsiar offered a government informant posing as a Mexican drug cartel associate a $1.5 million bounty  to help carry out the attack. The . informant who helped uncover the plan, which could have cause . catastrophic damage if it had been successful, was posing as a member of . the feared Zetas drug cartel. The . Zetas have have been behind some of the worst violence in Mexico's drug . war, including mass beheadings, the murder of a U.S. immigration . official, and the arson of a Monterrey casino that trapped and killed . 52. The informant had been busted by the . Drug Enforcement Agency for drug trafficking and had become a source . that had helped make arrests in drugs cases. Arbabsiar and another man, Gholam Shakuri, have been charged with the $1.5 million terror plot. Suspect: Alleged terror plotter Manssor Arbabsiar's home in Round Rock, Texas . Accused: The home of terror plot suspect Manssor Arbabsiar in Round Rock, Texas . Shakuri, whom authorities said was a member of the Quds Force, a branch of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is still at large. A third man named Abdul-Reza Shahlai is accused of coordinating the alleged plot. Shahlai, an Iranian official who is Arbabsiar's cousin, has previously been accused of plotting an attack in Iraq which killed five U.S. soldiers. Shocking details of the plot emerged as authorities revealed the scale of the operation to foil the attack. According to prosecutors, when asked by undercover agents about the potential loss of innocent life in the bombings, Arbabsiar replied, 'They want that guy [al-Jubeir] done. 'If the hundred go with him, f**k 'em.' Arbabsiar was arrested on September 29 in New York at JFK airport. Warning: Hillary Clinton (left) said the plot . 'crosses a line' in Iran's state sponsorship of terrorism and will . further isolate the Islamic republic, whose president is Mahmoud . Ahmadinejad (right) Attorney General Eric Holder, right, and FBI Director Robert Mueller announce that two individuals have been charged for their alleged participation in a plot to murder the Saudi Ambassador . May 24: Arbabsiar first meets someone posing as an associate of a drug trafficking cartel in Mexico, who was actually a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration informant codenamed CS-1. Arbabsiar asked about the informant's knowledge of explosives and explained he was interested in attacking a Saudi embassy. June 2: Arbabsiar returned to Mexico . and held more meetings with the informant in late June and early July. He allegedly said his associates in Iran had discussed a number of 'violent missions' including the murder of the Saudi ambassador to . Washington, Adel Al-Jubeir. July 14: Arbabsiar meets CS-1 again, they discuss plot details - how four men and a payment of $1.5 million are needed. July 17: The pair meet again in Mexico. CS-1 says one member of his gang has already carried out surveillance on the ambassador and they allegedly discussed bombing a restaurant in the United States where the ambassador frequently dined. August 1 and 9: Arbabsiar makes two overseas wire transfers 'totalling approximately $100,000' September 28: Arbabsiar flies to Mexico, is refused entry and is sent back to JFK . September 29: Arrested at JFK by federal agents . October 4-5: Arbabsiar, who has been in . U.S. custody since his arrest, made phone calls which were monitored by . U.S. law enforcement agents to Shakuri, described as a member of the . Quds Force, a branch of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He is believed to be based in Iran. Shakuri allegedly confirmed to Arbabsiar . the plot should move forward as quickly as possible, stating: 'Just do . it quickly, it's late' He was working for the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard and had confessed to a plot. Officials said he had flown from . Iran to Mexico City, via Frankfurt, but had been refused entry to . Mexico and had been put on a plane to New York. Mexico . worked closely with U.S. authorities to help foil the alleged plot - . issuing an immigration alert on Arbabsiar after U.S. authorities told . Mexican counterparts that he was the subject of an arrest warrant. Julian . Ventura, undersecretary for North America, said the alert prompted . Mexican immigration officials to turn Arbabsiar away when he tried to . enter Mexico on September 28. Arbabsiar was arrested the next day when he arrived at New York's Kennedy International Airport. After his arrest, Arbabsiar made phone . calls to Shakuri in Iran which were monitored.  During the calls, . Shakuri allegedly confirmed that Arbabsiar should move forward with the . plot to murder the Ambassador and that he should accomplish the task as . quickly as possible, stating on October 5, 2011, 'Just do it quickly, . it’s late.' Bombings of the Saudi and Israeli . embassies in Buenos Aires and Argentina were also discussed as part of . the plan, according to officials. Shakuri, who is based in Iran, remains at large. He is a member of Iran’s Quds Force, a special operations unit . of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which sponsors . and promotes terrorist activities abroad. The Treasury, meanwhile, identified the Iranian official coordinating the plot as, Abdul-Reza Shahlai, a cousin of Arbabsiar. Shahlai was three years ago identified as a terrorist by the U.S. Government for organising violence in Iraq. He is said to have worked with the anti-U.S. Mahdi Army to attack soldiers. In . one of the attacks he is alleged to have planned in January 2007, up to . a dozen fighters infiltrated a government building in Karbala, dressed . as American security officers. They opened fire, killing one U.S. soldier. Four others were abducted and found shot dead soon after. Target: The plot would have also attacked the Israel embassy, pictured here, in Washington DC . High alert: The Saudi Arabian ambassador, who works out of this Washington DC embassy, was the target of a terror plot . Iran’s secretive Quds Force is an elite brigade within Iran's revolutionary Guard. The Guards, with their own navy, air force and command structure separate from the regular armed forces, are seen as fiercely loyal to the supreme leader. Within the Guards, Quds are tasked with 'exporting' the Iranian revolution abroad. Said to contain 15,000 troops, the force has been linked to operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, North Africa and now North America. In the past, the U.S. has accused Quds of arming Iraqi militants with deadly bomb-making material, building up an extensive network in the war-torn country, recruiting Iraqis and supporting not only Shiite militias but also Shiites allied with Washington. The case looking into the Mexican cartel plot, called Operation Red Coalition, started in May when . Iranian-American Arbabsiar from Corpus Christi, Texas, sought help for . the assassination from a Mexican drug cartel and inadvertently . approached a US informant. Arbabsiar allegedly wired $100,000 to the informant as a down payment for the $1.5million assassination fee. He told the informant that his contacts in the Iranian government could provide 'tons of opium' to the drugs cartel. According . to the complaint, Arbabsiar claimed he was being 'directed by . high-ranking members of the Iranian government' including a cousin who . was 'a member of the Iranian army but did not wear a uniform'. He told agents he was recruited and funded by men he understood to be senior officials in Iran’s Quds Force. He allegedly said these Iranian officials were aware of and approved of the plot. Saudi-Iranian . tensions have increased since March, when Saudi Arabia sent troops to . help Bahrain's Sunni rulers quell pro-democracy protesters led by the . island's Shi'ite majority, which has long complained of sectarian . discrimination. Bahrain accused Iran of being behind the unrest, a charge denied by Tehran and by Bahraini Shi'ite political parties. Watched: The terror plot involved bombing the Saudi embassy in Washington D.C., seen here, after assassinating the ambassador . The Saudi Embassy is located next to the Watergate complex in Washington DC . President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad laughed off the accusations that Iran was behind the plot. His . spokesman Ali Akbar Javanfekr told CNN: 'I think the U.S. government is . busy fabricating a new scenario and history has shown both the U.S. government and the CIA have a lot of experience in fabricating these . scenarios and this is just the latest one. 'I . think their goal is to reach the American public. They want to take the . public’s mind off the serious domestic problems they’re facing these . days and scare them with fabricated problems outside the country.'
Alleged plot to assassinate Saudi ambassador by bombing restaurant in Washington DC followed by blasts at Saudi and Israeli embassies .
By . Daily Mail Reporter . Last updated at 2:49 AM on 31st October 2011 . An American official says Iran has formally complained to the U.S. over claims the Iranian government was involved in an alleged plot to kill Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States. The official said that the U.S. received a diplomatic note on Friday expressing displeasure with the charges that were levelled earlier this month.  Iran has already denied the allegations. The complaint calls on the U.S. to apologise publicly to Iran for the 'material and moral damages' caused by 'this baseless accusation', an Iranian source told NBC News. Scroll down for video . Plot: Manssor Arbabsiar (left) is accused of a terror plot to murder Saudi ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir (right) It adds that the accusations violated . 'international rules and regulations' but that deception has become 'a . permanent part of statecraft in the U.S.' The note was delivered through the . Swiss embassy in Tehran, which represents U.S. interests in Iran since . the two countries don't have diplomatic relations. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private diplomatic exchange. Iran has angrily denied charges . brought by U.S. federal prosecutors that an Iranian government agent was . involved in plotting the assassination of the Saudi ambassador. Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old U.S. citizen who also holds an Iranian passport, is due to appear in court . on December 21 accused of trying to hire a Mexican drugs cartel to carry . out the killing. Detained: Arbabsiar appearing before Judge Michael Dolinger and United States Assistant US Attorney Glen Kopp during his arraignment in New York . Appearance: These court sketches show Magistrate . Judge Michael Dolinger (left) presiding over the arraignment of Manssor . Arbabsiar (right) at Manhattan federal court . He is accused of plotting to kill Adel Al-Jubeir by bombing a restaurant, before setting off . blasts at the Saudi and Israeli embassies. The devastating plan was foiled after Arbabsiar offered a government informant posing as a Mexican drug cartel associate a $1.5 million bounty  to help carry out the attack. The . informant who helped uncover the plan, which could have cause . catastrophic damage if it had been successful, was posing as a member of . the feared Zetas drug cartel. The . Zetas have have been behind some of the worst violence in Mexico's drug . war, including mass beheadings, the murder of a U.S. immigration . official, and the arson of a Monterrey casino that trapped and killed . 52. The informant had been busted by the . Drug Enforcement Agency for drug trafficking and had become a source . that had helped make arrests in drugs cases. Arbabsiar and another man, Gholam Shakuri, have been charged with the $1.5 million terror plot. Suspect: Alleged terror plotter Manssor Arbabsiar's home in Round Rock, Texas . Accused: The home of terror plot suspect Manssor Arbabsiar in Round Rock, Texas . Shakuri, whom authorities said was a member of the Quds Force, a branch of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is still at large. A third man named Abdul-Reza Shahlai is accused of coordinating the alleged plot. Shahlai, an Iranian official who is Arbabsiar's cousin, has previously been accused of plotting an attack in Iraq which killed five U.S. soldiers. Shocking details of the plot emerged as authorities revealed the scale of the operation to foil the attack. According to prosecutors, when asked by undercover agents about the potential loss of innocent life in the bombings, Arbabsiar replied, 'They want that guy [al-Jubeir] done. 'If the hundred go with him, f**k 'em.' Arbabsiar was arrested on September 29 in New York at JFK airport. Warning: Hillary Clinton (left) said the plot . 'crosses a line' in Iran's state sponsorship of terrorism and will . further isolate the Islamic republic, whose president is Mahmoud . Ahmadinejad (right) Attorney General Eric Holder, right, and FBI Director Robert Mueller announce that two individuals have been charged for their alleged participation in a plot to murder the Saudi Ambassador . May 24: Arbabsiar first meets someone posing as an associate of a drug trafficking cartel in Mexico, who was actually a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration informant codenamed CS-1. Arbabsiar asked about the informant's knowledge of explosives and explained he was interested in attacking a Saudi embassy. June 2: Arbabsiar returned to Mexico . and held more meetings with the informant in late June and early July. He allegedly said his associates in Iran had discussed a number of 'violent missions' including the murder of the Saudi ambassador to . Washington, Adel Al-Jubeir. July 14: Arbabsiar meets CS-1 again, they discuss plot details - how four men and a payment of $1.5 million are needed. July 17: The pair meet again in Mexico. CS-1 says one member of his gang has already carried out surveillance on the ambassador and they allegedly discussed bombing a restaurant in the United States where the ambassador frequently dined. August 1 and 9: Arbabsiar makes two overseas wire transfers 'totalling approximately $100,000' September 28: Arbabsiar flies to Mexico, is refused entry and is sent back to JFK . September 29: Arrested at JFK by federal agents . October 4-5: Arbabsiar, who has been in . U.S. custody since his arrest, made phone calls which were monitored by . U.S. law enforcement agents to Shakuri, described as a member of the . Quds Force, a branch of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He is believed to be based in Iran. Shakuri allegedly confirmed to Arbabsiar . the plot should move forward as quickly as possible, stating: 'Just do . it quickly, it's late' He was working for the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard and had confessed to a plot. Officials said he had flown from . Iran to Mexico City, via Frankfurt, but had been refused entry to . Mexico and had been put on a plane to New York. Mexico . worked closely with U.S. authorities to help foil the alleged plot - . issuing an immigration alert on Arbabsiar after U.S. authorities told . Mexican counterparts that he was the subject of an arrest warrant. Julian . Ventura, undersecretary for North America, said the alert prompted . Mexican immigration officials to turn Arbabsiar away when he tried to . enter Mexico on September 28. Arbabsiar was arrested the next day when he arrived at New York's Kennedy International Airport. After his arrest, Arbabsiar made phone . calls to Shakuri in Iran which were monitored. During the calls, . Shakuri allegedly confirmed that Arbabsiar should move forward with the . plot to murder the Ambassador and that he should accomplish the task as . quickly as possible, stating on October 5, 2011, 'Just do it quickly, . it’s late.' Bombings of the Saudi and Israeli . embassies in Buenos Aires and Argentina were also discussed as part of . the plan, according to officials. Shakuri, who is based in Iran, remains at large. He is a member of Iran’s Quds Force, a special operations unit . of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which sponsors . and promotes terrorist activities abroad. The Treasury, meanwhile, identified the Iranian official coordinating the plot as, Abdul-Reza Shahlai, a cousin of Arbabsiar. Shahlai was three years ago identified as a terrorist by the U.S. Government for organising violence in Iraq. He is said to have worked with the anti-U.S. Mahdi Army to attack soldiers. In . one of the attacks he is alleged to have planned in January 2007, up to . a dozen fighters infiltrated a government building in Karbala, dressed . as American security officers. They opened fire, killing one U.S. soldier. Four others were abducted and found shot dead soon after. Target: The plot would have also attacked the Israel embassy, pictured here, in Washington DC . High alert: The Saudi Arabian ambassador, who works out of this Washington DC embassy, was the target of a terror plot . Iran’s secretive Quds Force is an elite brigade within Iran's revolutionary Guard. The Guards, with their own navy, air force and command structure separate from the regular armed forces, are seen as fiercely loyal to the supreme leader. Within the Guards, Quds are tasked with 'exporting' the Iranian revolution abroad. Said to contain 15,000 troops, the force has been linked to operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, North Africa and now North America. In the past, the U.S. has accused Quds of arming Iraqi militants with deadly bomb-making material, building up an extensive network in the war-torn country, recruiting Iraqis and supporting not only Shiite militias but also Shiites allied with Washington. The case looking into the Mexican cartel plot, called Operation Red Coalition, started in May when . Iranian-American Arbabsiar from Corpus Christi, Texas, sought help for . the assassination from a Mexican drug cartel and inadvertently . approached a US informant. Arbabsiar allegedly wired $100,000 to the informant as a down payment for the $1.5million assassination fee. He told the informant that his contacts in the Iranian government could provide 'tons of opium' to the drugs cartel. According . to the complaint, Arbabsiar claimed he was being 'directed by . high-ranking members of the Iranian government' including a cousin who . was 'a member of the Iranian army but did not wear a uniform'. He told agents he was recruited and funded by men he understood to be senior officials in Iran’s Quds Force. He allegedly said these Iranian officials were aware of and approved of the plot. Saudi-Iranian . tensions have increased since March, when Saudi Arabia sent troops to . help Bahrain's Sunni rulers quell pro-democracy protesters led by the . island's Shi'ite majority, which has long complained of sectarian . discrimination. Bahrain accused Iran of being behind the unrest, a charge denied by Tehran and by Bahraini Shi'ite political parties. Watched: The terror plot involved bombing the Saudi embassy in Washington D.C., seen here, after assassinating the ambassador . The Saudi Embassy is located next to the Watergate complex in Washington DC . President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad laughed off the accusations that Iran was behind the plot. His . spokesman Ali Akbar Javanfekr told CNN: 'I think the U.S. government is . busy fabricating a new scenario and history has shown both the U.S. government and the CIA have a lot of experience in fabricating these . scenarios and this is just the latest one. 'I . think their goal is to reach the American public. They want to take the . public’s mind off the serious domestic problems they’re facing these . days and scare them with fabricated problems outside the country.'
alleged plot to kill Saudi Arabia's ambassador to at the Saudi and Israeli embassies. The the Watergate complex in Washington DC .