Iran rejected US accusations Monday that the highest levels of
the Iranian leadership have armed insurgents in Iraq with
armor-piercing roadside bombs.
"Such accusations cannot be relied upon or be presented as
evidence. The United States has a long history in fabricating
evidence. Such charges are unacceptable," Foreign Ministry
spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters.
US military officials in Baghdad on Sunday accused the Iranian
leadership of arming Shi'ite militants in Iraq with the
sophisticated bombs that have killed more than 170 troops from the
American-led coalition.
The deadly and highly sophisticated weapons the US military said
it traced to Iran are known as "explosively formed penetrators", or
EFPs. Three senior military officials in Baghdad said the
"machining process" used in the construction of the deadly bombs
had been traced to Iran.
But Hosseini said Iran's top leaders were not intervening in
Iraq and considered "any intervention in Iraq's internal affairs as
a weakening of the popular Iraqi government, and we are opposed to
that."
The US military presentation in Baghdad was the result of weeks
of preparation as US officials put together a package of material
to support claims by President George W. Bush's administration of
Iranian intercession on behalf of militant Iraqis fighting American
forces.
The US military experts alleged that the supply trial began with
Iran's Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, which they said report
directly to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The US officials in Baghdad claimed the EFPs, as well as
Iranian-made mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades, have been
supplied to "rogue elements" of the Mahdi Army militia of
anti-American Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who is a key backer
of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Also Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the
likelihood of a US attack on his country is "very low", but that
any attack against Iran would be "severely punished"."
Ahmadinejad told ABC television that he did not fear an attack
from the United States.
"Fear? Why should we be afraid? First, the possibility is very
low," he said.
But he added: "Our nation has made it clear that anyone who
wants to attack our country will be severely punished."
Meanwhile, European Union foreign ministers approved plans
Monday for implementing UN sanctions against Iran, a move that is
meant to punish Teheran over its refusal to halt uranium
enrichment.
The plan follows agreement by the UN Security Council in
December to impose sanctions targeting people and programs linked
to Iran's nuclear program, which the EU and others fear is being
used to make nuclear weapons.
(China Daily via agencies February 13, 2007)
