Iran stops arms to Iraq, officials say

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON — Iran appears to have stopped shipping the deadliest type of weapons used against U.S. troops in Iraq after a European government confronted Tehran with proof that the weapons came from Iranian factories and Iraqi officials warned their neighbor that instability in Iraq affects the entire region, U.S., Western and Iraqi officials said.

A senior U.S. general in Iraq said Thursday that Iran is upholding informal commitments it’s made in the last several months and no new weapons caches have been found recently. “We believe the commitments that the Iranians have made appear to be holding up,” said Maj. Gen. James Simmons, a deputy corps commander in charge of studying explosive attacks, during a press briefing.

That’s a striking departure from repeated U.S. condemnations of Iranian meddling in Iraq and from the argument by allies of Vice President Dick Cheney that there’s little point in negotiating with Iran because its leaders can’t be trusted to deal in good faith.

A Western diplomat with knowledge of the incident and two U.S. intelligence officials told McClatchy that the Iranians began curbing their support for anti-American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan after they were caught supplying explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Similar weapons have turned up in southern Iraq, the Western diplomat said.

EFPs are sophisticated bombs that have caused extensive U.S. casualties in Iraq by firing molten copper plugs through the armor of U.S. tanks and humvees.