The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution Friday deploring the alleged plot to kill Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States and pointed a finger at Iran. The resolution passed with 106 votes in favor, nine against and 40 abstentions did not specifically pin the alleged assassination plan on Tehran. But it urged Iran “to comply with all of its obligations under international law” by cooperating with investigations. “This UN resolution demonstrates the increasing isolation of the Iranian regime as a result of its defiance of the international community and repeated failure to uphold its obligations under international law,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement. US authorities said last month they had uncovered a plot by two Iranians linked to Tehran's security agencies to hire a hit man to kill Adel Al-Jubeir, Saudi Ambassador to Washington. One man, Manssor Arbabsiar, was arrested in September and has pleaded not guilty. The other, Gholam Shakuri — said by US officials to be a member of Iran's Revolutionary Guards — is still at large. The Saudi-crafted resolution, co-sponsored by some 60 other countries, said the 193-nation assembly “deplores the plot to assassinate the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United States of America.” The passage of the resolution by a substantial majority came as Iran is also under growing pressure over its nuclear program. A recent UN report said Tehran appeared to have worked on designing an atomic bomb. Introducing the resolution, Saudi Arabia's UN Ambassador Abdullah Al-Mouallimi said its message was “enough is enough” with attacks on diplomats, but Riyadh was “not seeking to insult Iran or any other country.” “Justice demands that we give full opportunity to the Islamic Republic of Iran to come clean and to prove its innocence if it is not involved in this plot,” he said. A White House statement said the resolution “sends a strong message to the Iranian government that the international community will not tolerate the targeting of diplomats.” The resolution also condemns “terrorism in all its forms and manifestations” and “strongly condemns acts of violence against diplomatic and consular missions and representatives.” Opponents of the resolution, who included several left-wing governments in Latin America, said it set a dangerous precedent when no one had been proven guilty of the assassination plot. Countries that abstained included Russia and China — often at odds with the US at the United Nations — as well as Switzerland. Nearly 40 countries did not vote.
