Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, said that Iran was planning to attack the Israeli embassy in the U.S.

Last year, Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen holding both Iranian and U.S. passports, was arrested at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and charged with plotting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. in Washington.

However, there was another high-profile component to the plot, which escaped public attention.

According to an FBI special agent, Arbabsiar also “discussed the possibility of attacks on a number of targets. These targets included government facilities associated with Saudi Arabia and with ‘another’ country and these targets were located within the United States.”

The “other” country, Oren said, was Israel.

“They also planned to blow up the Israeli Embassy, my embassy in this town,” Oren confirmed in an exclusive interview with WTOP.

Oren said there was also a plan “to blow up a restaurant not far from where we’re being interviewed in Washington.” 

The envoy also asserted that Israel is considering a massive, crippling attack on Iran before it can move its nuclear facilities to safety deep underground. He added, however, that Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei can choose to shut down the regime’s nuclear weapons program and “remain in power.”