in VOA Special English.This week, American officialsaccused Iran of being involved in a plotto kill Saudi Arabia's ambassadorto the United States.BARACK OBAMA: "This is a- not just a dangerous escalation,this is part of a pattern of dangerousand reckless behavior by the Iranian government."President Obama spoke at the White House Thursdayat a joint press conferencewith South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.Mr. Obama said an Iranian-born American,Manssor Arbabsiar, had direct linksand was paid and directed by individualsin the Iranian government.BARACK OBAMA: "Even if, at the highest levels,there was not detailed operational knowledge,there has to be accountability with respectto anybody in the Iranian governmentengaging in this kind of activity."In Vienna, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said his country is consideringwhat he called a "measured response."PRINCE SAUD AL-FAISAL: "They think by murderand mayhem they will influencethe actions of this country.We will not bow to such pressures."In a letter to the United Nations,Iran called the accusations "fabricated and baseless."Iran's Foreign Ministryhas dismissed them as a "ridiculous farce."American officials say the goalwas to get Mexican drug traffickersto kill Saudi ambassador Adel al-Jubeirwith a bomb at a Washington restaurant.Officials say there were also plansto attack the Saudi and Israeli embassies.Mr. Arbabsiar is a former used-car dealer in Texas.Officials say he unknowingly sought helpfrom an informant for the United StatesDrug Enforcement Administration.They say he believed this personhad ties to Mexican drug groups.Mr. Arbabsiar was arrested last monthat New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.He reportedly admitted payingone hundred thousand dollars toward a price of oneand a half million dollars for the attack.Attorney General Eric Holder saidthat a second suspect facing charges,Gholam Shakuri, may be in Iran.He said Mr. Shakuri belongs to the Quds force,a part of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.The Quds force is suspected of involvementin attacks against American-led forces in Iraq,and of aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan.Ali Reza Nader is with the RAND Corporation,a research group.ALI REZA NADER: "First of allthe Iranian security servicesincluding the Revolutionary Guardslike to work through proxies, so other groups,whether they are Hezbollah or Hamasor Shia insurgents in Iraqor the Taleban in Afghanistan.They like to maintainsome kind of plausible deniability,not necessarily be tiedto spectacular terrorist plots."Iran is widely suspected of involvementin the bombing of a Jewish community centerin Argentina in nineteen ninety-four.That attack killed eighty-five people.And Iran has killed Iranian dissidentsin other countries.But Patrick Clawson of the Washington Institutefor Near East Policy saysIranian intelligencehas lately avoided plots like that.PATRICK CLAWSON: "I'm not surprisedit was the Quds force involved,if these allegations are true,because the people from the Ministry of Intelligenceare really too bright and understandthe world too well to agree tosuch a hare-brained scheme.Whereas many of the people in the Quds forceare really quite uninformedabout the world outside of Iran and might have thoughtthat they could have gotten away with such a thing,and that if they pulled it offthat it would somehow help Iran."And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.