Straw Points Finger at Iran Over Attacks

Telegraph:

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw today underlined suspicions that Iran had a hand in bomb attacks on British troops in Iraq. Last week Prime Minister Tony Blair said there was evidence the attacks in southern Iraq led back to Iran.

His remarks followed the disclosure by a senior UK official that the sophisticated bombs that killed eight British soldiers were supplied by the Hezbollah terror movement via the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Today in London Mr Straw said: "What we have presented to the Iranians is evidence which, in our judgment, clearly links the improvised explosive devices which have been used against British and other troops, mainly in the south of Iraq, to Hezbollah and to Iran.

"That is the evidence. We look to the Iranians to desist from anything that they have been involved in in the past, and also to use their very considerable influence with Hezbollah to ensure that this continued use of Hezbollah technology stops in Iraq." READ MORE

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in Britain for talks with Mr Blair, backed up the British position, saying: "I have every reason to believe that the British are right about this. I trust the British on this issue. The British are operating in the south, they know the situation there."

However, Iran's ambassador to Britain, Dr Seyed Mohammad Hossein Adeli, denied the charge.

He told BBC Radio 4's The World this Weekend: "We have already rejected categorically any link between Iran and the incidents that have taken place in Iraq for the British troops. There is not any kind of direct or indirect connection with Iran.

"Finding any devices similar to the Iranian devices in Iraq is not a surprise, because between these two countries there were eight years of war. There are lots of Iraqi devices in Iran, and lots of Iranian devices there. You cannot link this as evidence for Iranian involvement in these kind of things.

"On top of that ... it is in the best interests of Iran to see stability (in Iraq). So the insurgencies and those supporting them are acting actually against Iranian interests. So we would not be in any way ... supporting any kind of violence in Iraq, including violence against British troops."

A question mark over the alleged Iranian link was also raised by Major General William Webster, the highest ranking American officer in Baghdad.

He said: "We have seen, at least at my level, no evidence that it is the state of Iran doing this themselves.

"In this region there are an awful lot of allegiances. Some of them are family, some of them are tribal, some are religious. There are so many influences that would cause people to give assistance to the insurgency from the outside that unless you see direct evidence of state involvement, it is probably something else."

He said it was not unreasonable to suspect Iranian involvement, but said it would be "hasty" to jump to that conclusion.