US backs away from linking Iran govt to Iraq chaos
Source: Reuters
(Adds Bush and other quotes throughout) By Dean Yates BAGHDAD, Feb 14 (Reuters) - The United States backed away on Wednesday from a U.S. official's comments implicating Iran's government in arming Iraqi militants and said it was not trying to "hype" evidence of Iranian weapons being used in Iraq. President George W. Bush said he did not know if Iran's leaders ordered members of the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards to provide improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to militias in Iraq."What we do know is that the Quds Force was instrumental in providing these deadly IEDs to networks inside of Iraq," he said. "What we don't know is whether or not the head leaders of Iran ordered the Quds Force to do what they did." A senior U.S. military analyst, at an off-the-record briefing by three officials in Baghdad on Sunday, indicated the "highest levels" of Iran's government were involved in arming Iraqi militants with weapons used to kill American soldiers. Tensions were already high between the two arch-foes over Tehran's nuclear plans. But the analyst's comments were not supported by the head of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff, Marine Corps General Peter Pace, who on Tuesday said Iranian weapons found in Iraq did not mean the "Iranian government per se ... is directly involved in doing this". At a news conference in Baghdad on Wednesday, U.S. military spokesman Major-General William Caldwell was repeatedly pressed if he wanted to rescind the comments made by the analyst. "We were not trying to hype this up. We wanted to present physical evidence ... that we know is being manufactured in Iran and is making its way into Iraq," Caldwell said. "There was no intent to make any inferences of assertions at this point," he added, without repudiating the comments. Given criticism that has dogged Bush over the handling of intelligence leading to the Iraq war, U.S. officials had been careful in preparing the dossier to support claims that Iran was meddling in Iraq. The officials on Sunday had said the Quds Force was involved in supplying and training Iraqi militants. Caldwell noted that the analyst made "some connection" that the Quds Force got its guidance from the highest level of the Iranian government. "The intent at the press conference on Sunday was not to talk about that ... He (the analyst) was responding to questions and trying to be informative," Caldwell said, adding the aim had been to talk about Iranian weapons being smuggled into Iraq. Iran does not officially acknowledge the group's existence but the analyst said it reports directly to Iran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The officials on Sunday had presented fragments of evidence of Iranian-made weapons used in Iraq. This included Iranian-made roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) that U.S. officials said had killed 170 coalition soldiers in Iraq since 2004. Fragments of those weapons were put on display again on Wednesday. Caldwell appealed for Iran to stop the flow of weapons. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied on Monday Iran was supplying sophisticated weapons to Iraqi militants.
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