Al-Arabiya, New York, 4 Nov 2011 – The United Nations General Assembly’s sixth legal committee on Thursday discussed a Saudi draft proposal for the fight against terrorism, including state-sponsored terrorism, before it is put to a vote.

The proposal came weeks after the United States announced that it had foiled an attempt to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Saudi Arabia said the plot was “sinful and abhorrent” and vowed to respond appropriately.

Tehran has strongly denied any involvement in what the U.S. says was a plot by the Quds force to kill the Saudi envoy using hired assassins from a Mexican drug cartel for $1.5 million.

An Iranian-American, 56-year-old Manssor Arbabsiar, was accused of being the central figure in the alleged plot; he pleaded not guilty to the charges last week in a New York court.

Iranian officials said the accusations were an attempt by Washington to divert attention from its domestic economic woes and foreign policy failures in the Middle East.

The Saudi counter-terrorism proposal also came six weeks after the Kingdom signed an agreement with the United Nations to create the U.N. center for Counter Terrorism.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal signed the deal with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in September at the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Saudi Arabia pledged to contribute $10 million over the next three years to set up the anti-terrorism center. The Kingdom would also work to foster international cooperation, strengthen individual countries’ capacity-building efforts and build up a database of best practices to fight terrorism, according to the Saudi embassy in Washington.