UK freezes assets of five for alleged Iranian plot

Britain has frozen the assets of five men, including two key suspects in an alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in the United States, a government spokesman said yesterday.
The five targeted included Manssor Arbabsiar, a naturalized US citizen, who was arrested in September over the plot which Iran has dismissed as a fabricated "comedy show."
Gholam Shakuri, an Iranian who has been named by the US authorities as a co-plotter, was also included. Britain's Treasury also blacklisted Qasem Soleimani, who it said was a commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The other two were named as Iranian national Hamed Abdollahi and Abdul Reza Shahlai, who it said lived in Iran.