Top U.S. general downplays claim that Iranian government giving arms to Iraqi fighters

Updated 2/13/2007 10:35 AM ET

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The fact that Iranian-made weaponry has been found in Iraq does not necessarily mean the Tehran government is directly involved in supplying Iraqi militants with highly lethal roadside bombs, the top U.S. general said Tuesday.

The remarks by Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, contradicts claims by U.S. military and administration officials of high-level Iranian involvement on behalf or Iraqi insurgents fighting American forces.

ON DEADLINE: Differing claims on Iran

Pace said U.S. forces hunting down militant networks that produced roadside bombs had arrested Iranians and that some of the material used in the devices were made in Iran. But he added, "That does not translate that the Iranian government per se, for sure, is directly involved in doing this.

"What it does say is that things made in Iran are being used in Iraq to kill coalition soldiers," Pace told reporters in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

Three senior military officials in Baghdad said Sunday that the highest levels of Iranian government were responsible for arming Shiite militants in Iraq with the bombs, blamed for the deaths of more than 170 U.S. troops.

Asked Monday directly if the White House was confident that the weaponry is coming on the approval of the Iranian government, spokesman Tony Snow said, "Yes."

Iran on Monday denied any involvement.

"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 in Tehran.

The U.S. military presentation in Baghdad on Sunday was the result of weeks of preparation and revisions as U.S. officials put together a package of material to support the Bush administration's claims of Iranian intercession on behalf of militant Iraqis fighting American forces.

The Joint Chiefs chairman is the senior military adviser to the president, but he commands no troops and is not in the chain of command that runs from the president to the defense secretary to commanders in the field.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.