Some Experts Question Iran’s Role in Bungled Plot

Robert Mackey’s article, “Some Experts Question Iran’s Role in Bungled Plot”, Oct 12, 2011, argues that it is implausible that any high-level official of the Iranian government approved the failed plot to assassinate Mohammad Khazaee, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States. Mackey develops this claim by quoting two scholars and two analysts who find it unlikely that Iran would trust an amateur and a Mexican drug gang riddled with undercover US agents to carry out a plot like this. Mackey's purpose is to show there are other plausible explanations of the plot in order to raise awareness of how lack of diplomatic relations between the US and Iran results in a situation where it only takes a few people and only $100,000 to set off rhetoric that could lead to war. Mackey's article addresses an American audience interested in expert opinion.