Blair denies any knowledge of claimed US reconnaissance in Iran
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, Jan 22, IRNA -- Prime Minister Tony Blair has avoided directly answering whether he has any knowledge of claimed US military reconnaissance in Iran by repeating a previous denial that anyone was talking about an invasion. "I refer the hon. member to the answer I gave on 8 November 2004," Blair said in response to a written parliamentary question on Thursday on what information he had received or requested from Washington about US missions in Iran. Two months ago, the prime minister was asked orally by former Conservative minister Teddy Taylor to make it abundantly clear that Britain and the European Union were "wholly opposed to the bombing or invasion of Iran by America, Israel or anyone else." "Will he seek to remind his friend President Bush that it is only a few years since the Americans were supporting and providing weapons of mass destruction for their then friend Saddam Hussein so that he could invade Iran?" he was also asked. At the time, Blair said, "No one is talking about an invasion" of Iran. "No one has ever talked about it, to my knowledge. I think it is completely absurd of us to talk in this way," he said. Last Thursday, the British premier also declined to deny outright whether the UK was involved itself in any clandestine military reconnaissance in Iran. "We never answer questions about special forces, but do not take that as an answer indicating an affirmative," he said in an interview with the Guardian newspaper. The latest questions follow last week`s report by US journalist Seymour Hersh claiming in the New Yorker magazine that the US already had special forces inside Iran, preparing targets for pre-emptive military strikes. HC/2321/1432
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