Made in Iran

From CNN: U.S., Russia: No new Iran proposal.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, flatly denied reports from high-level diplomats that Russia had offered a new proposal that would allow Iran to enrich a small amount of uranium on its soil. ...

She said the United States has not changed its position "that enrichment and reprocessing on Iranian soil is not acceptable because of the proliferation risk." ...

The United States and European Union have demanded Iran return to its voluntary cooperation as a good-faith measure, but Tehran, which insists its program is for peaceful purposes only, accuses the West of holding the Islamic state to stricter standards.

Meanwhile, from ABC News: EXCLUSIVE: Iraq Weapons -- Made in Iran?. (via Confederate Yankee)

U.S. military and intelligence officials tell ABC News that they have caught shipments of deadly new bombs at the Iran-Iraq border.

They are a very nasty piece of business, capable of penetrating U.S. troops' strongest armor.

What the United States says links them to Iran are tell-tale manufacturing signatures -- certain types of machine-shop welds and material indicating they are built by the same bomb factory.
"The signature is the same because they are exactly the same in production," says explosives expert Kevin Barry. "So it's the same make and model."

U.S. officials say roadside bomb attacks against American forces in Iraq have become much more deadly as more and more of the Iran-designed and Iran-produced bombs have been smuggled in from the country since last October.

A similar report from CNN in August 2005: Rumsfeld: Iraq bombs 'clearly from Iran'.

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.

UPDATE I -- March 8: From The New York Sun: Iran Threatens U.S. With 'Harm and Pain'; Heading To Security Council. (via TIA Daily)

Iran threatened the United States with "harm and pain" Wednesday for its role in hauling Tehran before the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear program and for plans to push fellow council members to impose tough measures against the Islamic republic. ...

"The United States has the power to cause harm and pain," said Ali Asghar Soltanieh, a senior Iranian delegate to the IAEA. "But the United States is also susceptible to harm and pain. So if that is the path that the U.S. wishes to choose, let the ball roll."

Iran is already causing us "harm and pain" in Iraq. As Robert Tracinski retorted to the "let the ball roll" line: Let's roll.

And reader Russ reminded us of an article we forgot to include earlier: Iranian negotiator boasts of fooling Europeans.

UPDATE II -- March 10: Apparently Iran is not only a military problem in Iraq but in Afghanistan as well. From The Weekly Standard: Unholy Alliance. (via TIA Daily)

Iran secretly agreed to assist the Taliban in its war against U.S. forces in October 2001, according to the transcript of a high-level Taliban official's tribunal session at Guatanamo Bay, Cuba. The seven-page transcript, as well as thousands of pages of similar documents, was released by the Pentagon on March 3 in response to litigation brought by the Associated Press.

UPDATE III -- June 26: From the The Washington Times: Casey cites Iran hand in attacks by Iraqi Shi'ites.

Posted by Forkum at March 7, 2006 07:14 PM