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Iran angrily dismissed as “baseless” US charges it was arming Shiite militias in Iraq, with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warning any attack on his country “would be severely punished.”
In a rare interview with the US media given amid mounting tensions with the Islamic republic's arch-enemy in Washington, Ahmadinejad told ABC television that that he did not fear a US attack.
“Fear? Why should we be afraid? First, the possibility is very low,” he said the day after the United States accused Iranian agents of smuggling armour-piercing bombs into war-torn Iraq.
“Our nation has made it clear that anyone who wants to attack our country will be severely punished,” Ahmadinejad added.
While the Iranian leader sidestepped US accusations that Iran is supplying potent weapons to Iraq insurgents, foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini categorically rejected the charge.
“The US accusations from the past months concerning Iran's implication in the troubles in Iraq are without foundation,” Hosseini said. “They have made these allegations with the aim of creating propaganda.”
An anonymous group of senior US officials had shown journalists in Baghdad what they said was proof that Iranian agents have smuggled weapons to Iraq, including “explosively formed penetrators”, a form of roadside bomb.
These bombs, they said, have killed 170 American and allied troops since May 2004. The defence officials refused to allow reporters to name them or record their briefing, but released pictures of alleged Iranian arms.
The allegations were the most specific of a string of accusations the United States has levelled over Iran's role in Iraq, largely focussed on its alleged material support for Shiite militias.
But an official at the Iranian embassy in Baghdad said of the US allegations: “It is like America's former statements against Saddam Hussein about the weapons of mass destruction.”
Before their 2003 invasion of Iraq, US officials famously accused the then Iraqi dictator of stockpiling chemical weapons but these claims were later disproved and American officials now admit they were mistaken.
Ahmadinejad lambasted the presence of US-led foreign troops in Iraq, saying instability there would hurt all countries in the region.
“We shy away from any kind of conflict, any kind of bloodshed,” the Iranian leader said. “That's why we're opposed to the presence of Americans.”
Ahmadinejad added: “We tell them to leave the country and any other foreigner should leave the country.”
“There should be none in Iraq, and you see, we will have peace in Iraq.”
The war of words came amid mounting US exasperation at Iran's refusal to halt sensitive nuclear activities, which Washington believes are aimed at making a atomic bomb. Iran insists its nuclear programme is peaceful.
Although Washington has said it wants the nuclear standoff resolved through diplomacy, it has never ruled out military action to thwart Iran's atomic drive and fears are mounting that it could be laying the groundwork for a strike.
Despite being backed by key US ally Britain, the new accusations against Iran were not greeted with universal credence in Washington.
Several Democratic senators said they were unsure about the White House's real motives, particularly after a report that accused US officials of creating “inappropriate” intelligence linking Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda.
“I look at this with a degree of scepticism, based on the record that these intelligence operations have provided us in the past,” said Christopher Dodd, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesman appeared to back the US claims, saying Iran had failed to address British concerns in Iraq.
“We keep finding the weaponry which we don't believe to be sourced from anywhere else,” he said.
With the rhetoric rising, Israel, meanwhile, said Monday a successful night-time test of its Hetz (Arrow) anti-missile missile system was intended as a clear message to chief enemy Iran.
