WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday that weapons recently confiscated in Iraq were "clearly, unambiguously from Iran" and admonished Tehran for allowing the explosives to cross the border.
Iran's defense minister denied the claims in a report carried by the state-run news agency IRNA.
According to Ali Shamkhani, Iran is playing no role in Iraqi affairs, including "its alleged involvement in bomb explosions."
The shipment of sophisticated bombs was confiscated in the past two weeks by U.S. and Iraqi troops in southern Iraq, senior U.S. officials said Monday.
Although he would not comment on whether the Iranian government was directly involved, Rumsfeld said, "it's notably unhelpful for the Iranians to be allowing weapons of those types to be crossing the border."
"What you do know of certain knowledge is the Iranians did not stop it from coming in," he said.
Rumsfeld said the weapons create problems for the Iraqi government, coalition forces and the international community.
"And ultimately, it's a problem for Iran," he added.
When asked if that was a threat of possible retaliation, Rumsfeld replied, "I don't imply threats. You know that."
"They (the Iranians) live in the neighborhood. The people in that region want this situation stabilized with the exception of Iran and Syria," he said.
Here we go again. The Bush White House is making noises again about how Iran and Syria is supporting the terrorists on the war in Iraq. It is another scare tactic to frighten Americans into toeing the Bush propaganda line. And of course they'll certainly reiterate the non-existent link between Iraq and September 11th, only now we'll have some corollary links between Sept. 11th, Iraq, Syria, and Iran (Especially with Iran starting their nuclear weapons program, and the White House talk about how Iraq's WMDs were sent across the border to Syria before the U.S. invasion). You have to wonder how long this will last--especially since Bush's poll numbers have been dropping regarding the American public's support for the war.
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