Qatar Suggests Saudi, Iran Meet over Envoy 'Plot'

Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani proposed on Sunday that Saudi and Iranian officials should meet over the alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi envoy to Washington, state media said.

"I think that the best and easiest way to solve this issue is for the two sides to meet," Sheikh Hamad, who also holds the foreign affairs portfolio, said after meeting Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, QNA state news agency said.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran and Saudi Arabia are two big nations and should have good relations," he said, adding that he hoped that U.S. allegations against Iran would be proven false.

"We are part of the Gulf Cooperation Council, and we have an interest in the security and stability of Saudi Arabia. We hope that it is false," he said.

"We still wait for evidence," he said.

The United States claims that the Quds Force of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards plotted to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington by hiring assassins from a Mexican drug cartel for $1.5 million.

An Iranian-American accused of involvement in the plot pleaded not guilty in a New York court last week.

Iran has strongly denied any involvement.