UNITED NATIONS: Iran called US allegations of a plan to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington an “evil plot” by the United States, in a complaint sent late Tuesday to the United Nations.

Iran's US ambassador accused Israel of carrying out the murders of Iranian nuclear scientists with US support, in a letter sent to UN leader Ban Ki-moon and the UN Security Council.

“Iran categorically and in the strongest terms condemns this shameful allegation by the United States authorities and deplores it as a well-thought evil plot in line with their anti-Iranian policy,” Mohammad Khazaee said in the letter.

US authorities said earlier they had uncovered a plot by the Iranian government to assassinate the Saudi envoy to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir. The US administration has vowed to hold Iran to account.

Two men have been charged with conspiring with Iranian government factions to stage the attack and one is in US custody.

Khazaee expressed “outrage” over the allegations in his letter to the UN council, where Iran faces mounting pressure over its nuclear programme.

The Security Council has imposed four rounds of sanctions because of Iran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment.

He said the US accusations were to “divert attention from the current economic and social problems at home and the popular revolutions and protests against United States long supported dictatorial regimes abroad.”

Iran has always condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,”and has been a victim, the ambassador said. “A clear recent example of which is the assassination of a number of Iranian nuclear scientists in the past two years carried out by the Zionist regime and supported by the United States.”

An Iranian particle physics professor at Tehran University was killed in a bomb attack outside his home in January 2010.

Another scientist was killed in Tehran on November 29, while nuclear chief Fereydoon Abbasi Davani survived an assassination attempt the same day.

Khazaee said “The Iranian nation seeks a world free from terrorism and considers the current US warmongering and propaganda machine against Iran as a threat not just against itself but to the peace and stability in the Persian Gulf region.”

The envoy told Ban: “As the secretary general of the United Nations you have an important responsibility in enlightening the international public opinion about the dangerous consequences of warmongering policies of the United States government on international peace and security.”