White House declines to comment on alleged covert operations in Iran

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-01 11:17

WASHINGTON - The White House declined on Monday to make comment on a news report that Congress approved late last year President George W. Bush's funding request of US$400 million to undermine Iran's leadership.

"I couldn't comment either way," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters after the New Yorker magazine reported Sunday that the Bush administration has beefed up its covert operations against Iran's leadership.

In response to a question if the United States would resort to military actions against Iran before Bush leaves the White House office in January 2009, Perino reiterated that Bush "is singularly focused on trying to solve this issue diplomatically."

The New Yorker magazine quoted former military, intelligence, and congressional sources as reporting on Sunday that following the special investment by the Bush administration, Washington has increased its support for Iran's minority and dissidents and intelligence gathering about Iran's nuclear facilities.

Although US clandestine operations aimed at destabilizing Iran's government are by no means new, the "scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which involve the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), have now been significantly expanded," the magazine noted.

However, US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker rejected the allegation of US cross-border operations from Iraq into Iran.

"I can tell you flatly that US forces are not operating across the Iraqi border into Iran," he told CNN television.

The United States has no diplomatic relations with Iran since April 1980, five months after Iranian students occupied the American embassy in Teheran. Fifty-two Americans were held hostage for 444 days.

Washington strongly accused Tehran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of its stated goal of developing civilian nuclear power. Iran denies US allegations.