The Obama Administration announced October 11 that U.S. drug and law enforcement agencies had broken up an Iranian plot to hire members of the Zetas Mexican drug cartel to kill Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S. Adel Al-Jubeir on American soil. The discovery of the murder-for-hire conspiracy has definite implications for relations between the U.S. and Iran.
American relations with Iran are historically bad anyway. Now count on the U.S. to try to further isolate Iran in the global community. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it was going to happen; so did Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder.
Iran's plan, which had no chance of success, was immediately reminiscent of another cockeyed scheme to involve Mexico in American affairs. In 1917, Germany tried to get Mexico to begin a war with the U.S. to keep America out of World War I. The offer came to light in the Zimmerman Telegram. In exchange, Germany promised that, once it had won the war in Europe, it would help Mexico retake the American Southwest, which it lost to the United States in 1848.
Both plans failed, and both have (had) major implications for U.S. foreign policy.
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