By IANS,
Washington : The US Treasury Department announced Tuesday that it has slapped sanctions on five individuals linked to the assassination attempt on the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Xinhua reported.
Among them, Qasem Soleimani, Hamed Abdollahi, Abdul Reza Shahlai and Ali Gholam Shakuri are senior officers from the Quds Force, an elite division of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps responsible for foreign operations, said the US Treasury Department.
The fifth person, Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old naturalised US citizen holding both Iranian and US passports, was listed for sanctions for arranging the assassination plot on behalf of the Quds Force.
He was arrested Sep 29 at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Arbabsiar and Shakuri, who remain at large, were named Tuesday by the US Attorney for the southern district of New York in a criminal complaint in connection with the murder plot.
Among the charges brought against the duo was conspiracy to engage in foreign travel and use inter-state and foreign commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.
Meanwhile, the Saudi embassy in Washington thanked the US for preventing the alleged assassination attempt on the Saudi ambassador.
“Embassy would like to express its appreciation to the responsible agencies of the U.S. government for preventing a criminal act from taking place,” said the Saudi embassy in its Tweeter feed.