Iran Boosts Military Aid to Lebanon

WASHINGTON —  Over the last 45 days, Iran has sent 10 cargo flights of mostly military equipment through Syria to its Lebanese allies for use against Israel, U.S. officials said Thursday.

Most of the weapons arrived after the U.S.-brokered cease-fire that ended 16 days of clashes between Israel and pro-Iranian Hezbollah guerrillas, according to the officials, who said Tehran appears intent on trying to scuttle the accord with a massive re-arming of its allies.

“This is a significant and ominous buildup,” a senior Pentagon official said. The last shipment arrived Tuesday, and more “are scheduled,” he said.

Iran denied the charges. “Any shipment from Iran to Lebanon includes only humanitarian aid for Lebanese people, and there was not any military shipment from Iran to Lebanon whatsoever,” Hosein Nosrat, spokesman for the Iranian mission to the United Nations, said Thursday.

U.S. officials believe that the most sophisticated military equipment in the shipments from Iran are Katyushas, small rockets that Hezbollah favors in its cross-border attacks from southern Lebanon.

Iran is escalating the quantity of weapons but not the quality, they said; last year Iran averaged only one cargo flight every three months.

The Pentagon official charged that Iran is getting its allies “positioned” for another confrontation with Israel by “making sure its clients are strong and able.”

The shipments came as Tehran announced that 200,000 troops--almost half of Iran’s military forces--and hundreds of tanks launched the largest military maneuvers since the 1979 revolution. Gen. Ali Shahbazi, Iranian armed forces chief of staff, said Thursday that the two-day exercises are the biggest ever organized in the Middle East.

Maj. Gen. Habib Baqaei, commander of the Iranian air force, told the Islamic Republic News Agency that the maneuvers are intended to “create fear in the hearts of the enemies of the Islamic Republic and increase the combat readiness of the armed forces.”

Four battalions of elite Revolutionary Guards and teams of amphibious frogmen began practice assaults on the Karoun and Bahmanshir rivers near the Iraqi border. A ground assault near the holy city of Qom, 85 miles from Tehran, includes 10 armored and infantry divisions, six independent brigades, 100 helicopters and other missile and artillery units, Iran announced.

Tehran’s demonstration of military might may be a response to the building tension between Iran and Israel in recent months and Tehran’s belief that Israel intends to attack Iran--possibly targeting the nuclear reactor that it is trying to build, U.S. officials said.

“In light of Israel’s past actions and current rhetoric, it’s not a reach for the Iranians to be concerned,” an administration official said Thursday. “They read what the Israelis are saying, and Israel is painting Iran as the source of all evil in the region.”

Tension has also been heating up between Iran and the United States, which has been trying to tighten the economic and diplomatic squeeze around Tehran. Secretary of State Warren Christopher said Tuesday that Iran is now the main sponsor of international terrorism. The Clinton administration also alleges that Iran is making weapons of mass destruction.

Tehran claimed Thursday that the military maneuvers are defensive. But this week, Gen. J.H. Binford Peay III, commander of the U.S. Central Command, whose mission includes security in the Persian Gulf region, charged that Iran’s military capabilities now extend far beyond its defensive needs.

With the help of Russian scientists, Tehran is attempting to expand the range of its Scud-B and Scud-C surface-to-surface missiles, which have a range of 190 and 310 miles, to reach as far as Europe, Peay said in an interview published Wednesday in Jane’s Defense Weekly. Iran is about 1,500 miles from Central Europe.

Iran’s military is also building tunnels along the southern coast that could shelter long-range ballistic missiles, Peay said earlier this month. In addition, Tehran has been arming its warships with anti-ship missiles, according to U.S. officials.

In part because of Iran’s buildup, the United States plans to deploy 34 warplanes and as many as 1,300 troops in late June to the state of Qatar, which lies across the Persian Gulf from Iran. The U.S. Airpower Expeditionary Force will conduct joint exercises with Qatar, a reflection of the American commitment to protect the vulnerable oil-rich Arab sheikdoms from Iran and Iraq.

Since November, the United States also has deployed similar contingents in both Bahrain and Jordan. The troops will remain in Qatar until late August.

“We think this is a very effective means of demonstrating our determination to deter aggression against Qatar and our other allies in the region and to maintain stability in the area,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Bruce O. Riedel said in making the announcement last week.