Bush, Blair Warn Iran on Terrorism
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com International Editor
October 07, 2005
(CNSNews.com) - President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have both signaled a new level of impatience with Iran, accusing the Islamic regime of supporting terrorism in Iraq and elsewhere.
The hardening stance comes at a time of growing tension over Tehran's nuclear activities, as Iran and Western nations lobby for support ahead of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting in November that could refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council.
In the American president's case, the warning came in a speech Thursday, in which Bush also focused strongly, for the first time, on the ideology of Islamism and its drive to establish a "radical Islamic empire."
In a speech delivered at the National Endowment for Democracy, Bush lashed out at Iran and Syria, calling them allies of terrorists "that share the goal of hurting America and moderate Muslim governments."
Accusing Iran and Syria of a long history of collaboration with terrorists, he warned that the U.S. "makes no distinction between those who commit acts of terror and those who support and harbor them, because they're equally as guilty of murder.
"Any government that chooses to be an ally of terror has also chosen to be an enemy of civilization," Bush said. "And the civilized world must hold those regimes to account."
Earlier Thursday, Blair said in London that sophisticated new explosive devices being used in attacks against British troops and elsewhere in Iraq may have originated from Iran or from the Iranian-sponsored terrorist group, Hizballah.
"What we know is that the devices are of a similar nature to those used by Hizballah and there are certain pieces of information that lead us back to Iran," he told a press joint conference with visiting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
Blair warned Iran against interference in Iraq. He also hinted at suspicions of a link between the alleged Iranian activity and the nuclear dispute between Iran and the West.
"There is no justification for Iran or any other country interfering in Iraq," he said.
"Neither will we be subject to any intimidation in raising the necessary and right issues to do with the nuclear weapons obligations of Iran under the [International] Atomic Energy Agency treaty."
Britain has 8,000 military personnel in Iraq, mostly in the south, as part of the U.S.-led coalition.
Blair spoke a day after an unidentified senior British official briefed media on suspicions that Iran's Revolutionary Guard corps - the military organization created in 1979 to "defend" the Islamic revolution - was providing weapons to terrorists in Iraq to attack British troops.
The attacks were being carried out with armor-penetrating explosives controlled by infrared mechanisms, similar to devices used by Hizballah, he was quoted as saying.
"Iran's interference [in Iraq] might be a warning issues by Tehran in response to London's stand towards Iran's nuclear program," the official said.
The Iranian ambassador in London, Seyed Mohammed Hossein Adeli, issued a statement denying the accusation, while Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said in Tehran the claim was a "lie."
\s4 Return of the Revolutionary Guard
Iran has come under increasing pressure over its nuclear program, since the IAEA board of governors two weeks ago passed a critical resolution laying the groundwork for possible referral of Iran's case to the Security Council at the board's next meeting in November.
On Monday Ali Larijani, Iran's top security official and head of the nuclear negotiating team, was quoted by Iran's Sisayat-e Rouz newspaper as saying that if his country was pressured by the U.S., "Iran will use its full might to endanger America's interests."
The latest allegations of Iranian links to terror in Iraq come amid mounting concerns about the growing influence enjoyed by the Revolutionary Guard - also known as the Pasdaran, or by the acronym IRGC - since the rise to power of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The new president is himself a former senior officer in the IRGC, and in its Quds (Jerusalem) Force, a unit Iranian dissidents say oversees terrorist activities abroad.
Iran Focus, an anti-regime Iranian news service, lists 13 of Ahmadinejad's 21 cabinet members - including the ministers of foreign affairs, defense - as having backgrounds in the IRGC or affiliated units.
According to the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an exiled opposition group, key posts in Iran's supreme national security council are now also held by former Revolutionary Guards, including Larijani, who heads the powerful body.
On Sunday, a former commander-in-chief of the IRGC's Quds Force was named deputy defense minister.
"The newly appointed officials all have long records in the suppression of the Iranian people, involvement in the regime's nuclear and missile programs and export of terrorism," the Paris-based opposition group said.
Amid the increased focus on Syrian and Iranian links to violence in Iraq, Larijani held talks Wednesday with President Bashir Assad in Damascus, where a presidential statement said they had discussed Western pressure being applied on Syria and Iran.
The two spoke about the need for closer and broader cooperation between the two countries "and possible coordination on issues."
Hizballah, the group referred to by Blair and earlier by the unnamed British official, is a Lebanon-based Shiite group created by Iran.
In 1982, three years after fundamentalists deposed the Shah in Tehran, a 1,500-strong IGRC force was sent to Lebanon. There it oversaw the establishment of Hizballah, designed as a proxy force to fight against Israel and to spread the Islamic revolution in Lebanon.
It was and has been armed and sponsored by Iran, and backed by Syria.
Hizballah was the principal suspect in deadly bombings against the U.S Embassy and U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut, and an attack against French troops there.
At the time of the 1983 bombings, Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar, the man recently appointed as Ahmadinejad's new defense minister, headed the IGRC force in Lebanon.
Today Hizballah portrays itself as a legitimate political party, and it is widely viewed as such in the Islamic world.
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