The Curmudgeon

YOU'LL COME FOR THE CURSES. YOU'LL STAY FOR THE MUDGEONRY.

Monday, October 17, 2005

Straw Socks it to the Mullahs One More Time

With the Vicar of Downing Street and his master's voice cosily cloistered at Chequers, it has fallen to Tony Blair's second-best suit to give Iran a fresh warning over its suspected support for Iraqi insurgents.

Jack Straw informed BBC Radio that evidence had been presented to Iran which, in the judgement of the British government, "clearly links the improvised explosive devices which have been used against British and other troops, mainly in the south of Iraq, to Hizbullah and to Iran". The Vicar of Downing Street said last week that there was evidence linking explosive devices which have been used against British and other troops to Iran. Before that, a senior flunkey who refused to be named said that bombs which killed British soldiers had been supplied by Hizbullah via Iran's Revolutionary Guards. The evidence mentioned by Straw certainly seems to be mounting up.

His master's voice said that "Washington had also warned Iran and backed Britain's position". It is certainly reassuring to know that the evidence is good enough for Washington. "I have every reason to believe that the British are right about this. I trust the British on this issue," Dr Rice said charitably. "The British are operating in the south, they know the situation there," she continued. This seems a healthy sign for the Special Relationship; I seem to recall that some weapons inspectors, operating in Iraq a couple of years ago, were not trusted nearly so much.

Iran, of course, has denied the charges. Allegations backed up by evidence, however ethereal, are necessarily charges. "There is not any kind of direct or indirect connection with Iran," said the Iranian ambassador in London, Seyd Mohammed Adeli. A likely story.

Meanwhile, Iranian officials have blamed Britain for two explosions in a shopping centre near the Iran-Iraq border. Four people were killed and eighty injured, though fortunately none of them was British. In the honourable journalistic tradition of not pressing anonymous officials for evidence, the anonymous Iranian officials do not appear to have been pressed for evidence. Charges without evidence are simply allegations. The British embassy in Tehran has rejected the allegations.

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