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Arms consignment from Iran seized at Iraq border

Ewen MacAskill

"Concrete evidence of weapon smuggling emerges"

LONDON: The British Government on Wednesday described as ``unacceptable'' the smuggling of arms from Iran into Iraq after revealing that a consignment was intercepted at the border between the two countries.

While complaints have been made in the past, it is relatively rare to have concrete evidence of such smuggling.

The British embassy in Teheran raised the issue at a meeting with the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Officials relayed the Government's concern and pressed Iran to acknowledge that there was a problem that should be dealt with.

Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. Secretary of State, this week warned Iran about the extent of smuggling. The U.S. has been protesting over the past two years over alleged Iranian meddling in Iraq. Mr Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing that the smuggling was ``a problem'' for the Iraqi Government. ``It's a problem for the coalition forces. It's a problem for the international community, and ultimately, it's a problem for Iran.''

Disclosure of the smuggling came hours after four American soldiers were killed and six were wounded as a patrol was attacked near Baiji, 150 km north of Baghdad, late on Tuesday. A bomb wrecked two Humvee cars and a larger armoured vehicle.

Iran has repeatedly denied any involvement in the militancy or party politics in Iraq. A senior British official on Wednesday disclosed details of the incident when a group crossing from Iran was intercepted near Maysan, which is in the British-controlled sector of Iraq. Iraqi security forces opened fire and the smugglers fled back to Iran leaving behind their cache of timers, detonators and other bomb-making equipment.

Identity unknown

The British official said he did not know the identity of the group or those behind it but said it had the ``fingerprints'' of either the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, controlled by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or the Lebanese based Hizbollah. The incident comes against a backdrop of increased tension between Iran and the West over allegations that Teheran is intent on securing a nuclear weapon capability.

The U.S. has had no diplomatic relationship with Iran since 1980 and has branded it a part of the ``axis of evil''.

But the British Government usually opts for a less confrontational approach than the U.S. The British official said he thought such smuggling from Iran was infrequent and trivial compared with the arms going into Iraq from Syria.

Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Iraqi Prime Minister, who spent years in exile in Iran, dodged questions about the alleged use of Iranian weapons by militants. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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