Ahmadinejad makes America weapons claim
Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 12:06 pm
می*شود و می*توان Agency Report, February 15th 2007
Tehran: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has claimed that the US State Department has been implicated in some attacks on Iraqi civilians in Iraq. He said he was "certain" that a branch of the State Department was supplying weapons to the Iraqi army. But the President also denied he was sowing the seeds for an invasion of America, and admitted he did not know who was behind the State Department initiative.
The claim, made before a Majlis debate over Ahmadinejad’s Iraq plan, follows on from previously unattributed comments from Tehran officials. These comments said that the American government was supplying weapons to the Iraqi armed forces.
Named officials have stopped short of confirming the accusation until Ahmadinejad made his speech on Wednesday. Mr Ahmadinejad said he did not know who had instructed the US State Department to start supplying weapons, adding that he was only trying to protect civilians in Iraq.
According to the Fox television network, the US already has given Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki light arms, vehicles, tanks and helicopters. The Bush administration has not confirmed that information. "We're looking at how to better equip those forces," US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said in an interview on the channel, but her current role in the US State Department is considered so peripheral by Tehran intelligence circles that this is not taken to be anything other than posturing on her part.
Tehran: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has claimed that the US State Department has been implicated in some attacks on Iraqi civilians in Iraq. He said he was "certain" that a branch of the State Department was supplying weapons to the Iraqi army. But the President also denied he was sowing the seeds for an invasion of America, and admitted he did not know who was behind the State Department initiative.
The claim, made before a Majlis debate over Ahmadinejad’s Iraq plan, follows on from previously unattributed comments from Tehran officials. These comments said that the American government was supplying weapons to the Iraqi armed forces.
Named officials have stopped short of confirming the accusation until Ahmadinejad made his speech on Wednesday. Mr Ahmadinejad said he did not know who had instructed the US State Department to start supplying weapons, adding that he was only trying to protect civilians in Iraq.
According to the Fox television network, the US already has given Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki light arms, vehicles, tanks and helicopters. The Bush administration has not confirmed that information. "We're looking at how to better equip those forces," US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said in an interview on the channel, but her current role in the US State Department is considered so peripheral by Tehran intelligence circles that this is not taken to be anything other than posturing on her part.