Iran Denies Sending Arms to Bosnians

BEIJING — Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani, speaking at a news conference here Thursday, denounced as a “fabrication” reports that Iran flew weapons intended for Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Muslim forces into a Croatian airport last weekend.

Iran would, however, consider sending weapons if attempts to settle the conflict in the former Yugoslav republic failed and its Muslim-dominated government were to request such assistance, he said.

“This . . . is a mere fabrication,” Rafsanjani said in response to a question about reports of an arms shipment. “(The Muslims) have not yet requested arms from Iran, and it is not our policy to give arms to them. We believe that this problem should be solved through other means. But if other means are not effective, and they request arms from Iran, this is a question that we shall consider.”

U.S. officials have said that Iran tried to circumvent a year-old U.N. arms embargo in the region with an Iranian air force flight that flew an estimated 4,000 machine guns and 1 million rounds of ammunition to Zagreb airport. And Croatian authorities confirmed Thursday that they had seized a shipment of weapons and ammunition from Iran, the Associated Press reported.

Bosnian Muslims are fighting better-armed Serbian forces for control of the republic. The Islamic Conference, of which Iran is a member, and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher have called for the lifting of the prohibition on arms sales to Bosnia. But the United States and most of its European allies favor continuation of the embargo as a means of limiting further bloodshed.

“We believe that the problem in Bosnia-Herzegovina cannot be settled through weapons, because there are countries that might furnish arms to the two sides, and this will only prolong the conflict in that country,” Rafsanjani said. “For the time being, the assistance that we are giving to that country is only foodstuffs, drugs, political assistance and sometimes financial aid.

“We believe that the decisions and the resolutions of the United Nations should be taken seriously, and one of the things included in those decisions is to refrain from furnishing arms to that country, because arms can only prolong the conflict.”

Both Rafsanjani and a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman denied that the Iranian leader’s four-day visit to China has anything to do with Chinese military sales to Tehran. The United States has charged that China has assisted Iran with critical equipment needed to pursue a secret nuclear weapons program.

“We have no military contracts to be signed here,” Rafsanjani said.

However, he said that the two countries have reached “an understanding . . . for the purchase of a nuclear power station from China.” The station would be one of relatively small size, with 300-megawatt capacity, he said. That is the size of China’s first nuclear power plant, which began operation last year.

The official New China News Agency reported that the two countries signed “an agreement on cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”

The news agency added that the sale of the nuclear power plant to Tehran is contingent on the plant being placed under supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a condition to which Iran reportedly agreed.