Dubai: The United States urged the world to take concerted action against Iran for an alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington as the kingdom's foreign minister accused Tehran of "murder and mayhem''.
As US diplomats began consultations behind closed doors at the United Nations, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rallied support for tough new measures against Iran.
In London, Foreign Secretary William Hague told lawmakers that Britain was working with the US, Saudi Arabia and others to agree on a tough international response to the plan to assassinate the envoy. The US Treasury's top official fighting financing of terrorism said that Washington was considering additional sanctions on Iran's central bank.
Sanctions on airline
The US Treasury slapped sanctions on Mahan Air, a Tehran-based commercial airline accused of ferrying around the Middle East members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps implicated in the plot.
In Vienna, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal said: "We will not bow to such a pressure." He also said "we hold them accountable for any action they take against us."
Meanwhile, Iran urged Saudi Arabia "not to fall into the trap" of believing US claims, which it said served only the US and Israel.
