Lawmakers: Alleged Iran plot 'very real'

Combined news services

WASHINGTON -- The heads of the intelligence committees in Congress said yesterday that an alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador should be taken very seriously, with one, Republican Mike Rogers, warning that the United States and Iran could be on a "collision course."

Pushing back against questions about whether the plot was a serious effort endorsed by top Iranian officials, Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said it appeared amateurish only because the United States was able to thwart it so early in the planning stages.

"We were very fortunate," Rogers said on ABC's "This Week." "We got to see this, we the U.S. government, got to see this unfold from the beginning."

Rogers and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said the United States should respond aggressively, but stopped short of calling for military action against Iran, instead pushing for tougher economic sanctions.

Feinstein said she was initially skeptical when she was first briefed about the alleged plot in early September but now believed "it's very real."

President Barack Obama said on Thursday that Iran would face the toughest possible sanctions and the United States would not take any options off the table.

In Tehran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the United States Sunday that any measures taken against Iran over the alleged plot would elicit a "resolute" response.

Two men, including a member of the Iranian special foreign actions unit known as the Quds Force, have been charged in New York federal court with conspiring to kill the Saudi diplomat, Adel Al-Jubeir. U.S. officials have said no one was ever in any immediate danger from the plot.