Bush Had Role in Arms Deal, Iran Claims

Iran’s prime minister said Vice President George Bush played a role in secret arms sales to Iran but claimed that American “party factions” are trying to conceal it.

Iran’s official Tehran radio Thursday night quoted Prime Minister Hussein Moussavi as saying that unspecified documents showed Bush was involved in former U.S. National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane’s secret visit to Iran last May.

McFarlane brought a planeload of American weapons in an effort to seek Tehran’s help in obtaining the release of Americans held hostage in Lebanon. U.S. and Iranian officials have said the mission was unsuccessful.

Bush has said he cannot recall when he first learned of the decision to sell arms to Iran and has expressed “reservations on certain aspects” of President Reagan’s Iran policy.

“Party factions in the U.S.A. are trying to hide (Bush’s) role in this political disgrace,” Tehran radio said.

The radio gave no further details of Moussavi’s remarks and did not expand on what he meant by saying Bush had a role in the secret visit.

It quoted Moussavi as saying the documents that revealed Bush’s role were published after the kidnaping in Lebanon of CIA station chief William Buckley. However, it did not say exactly when or where the purported documents were published.

Bush recently confirmed reports by Lebanese and Western intelligence sources that Buckley died after being tortured.