U.S. Accuses Iran of Covert Actions Abroad

The Clinton administration charged Wednesday that Iran has launched a series of covert operations abroad, including an attempt to overthrow the government of Bahrain that is Tehran’s most ambitious and aggressive since the regime’s early years.

Senior U.S. officials said the recent moves indicate a major shift in policy and in the centers of power in Tehran. As Iran reverts to old ways and revives old hostilities, fears are growing in Washington about the dangers of direct or indirect confrontation, especially as the U.S. military prepares to deploy in nearby Qatar later this month.

“Iran seems to be asking for trouble,” a senior administration official said Wednesday. “And a threat to our close allies such as Bahrain and Israel poses potential threats to U.S. targets as well.”

The administration is particularly concerned about stability in Bahrain, which has been the most loyal U.S. ally in the strategic Persian Gulf. The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet runs its Persian Gulf operations out of Bahrain because none of the region’s other sheikdoms, which are all dependent on Western arms or military assistance, allows a permanent U.S. military deployment.

The U.S. Air Force sent 34 F-15s and F-16s and as many as 1,300 personnel to Bahrain in November and December. A similar group will be deployed in nearby Qatar from June 28 through August.

“The U.S. deployment will send a signal to Iran that [Washington] will not tolerate such activity. We will stand by our friends in the region,” a senior Pentagon official said Wednesday.

U.S. officials also said Iranian agents are believed to be linked to the assassination in Paris last week of a former Cabinet minister who served under the late Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. Iran has also delivered planeloads of military equipment to the Hezbollah Islamic militia in Lebanon during the past two months.

Predominantly Shiite Iran reasserted its claim to Bahrain--where the majority of the population is Shiite but the ruling elite is Sunni Muslim--shortly after Tehran’s 1979 revolution. However, Iran until recently has tried to patch up relations with its Arab neighbors, while terrorist attacks in Europe attributed to it have ebbed as Tehran has tried to strengthen vital trade relations.

Pentagon officials said Wednesday that Iran has become more aggressive recently in part because of the rise of Intelligence and Security Minister Ali Falahian, who has emerged as a major power in the increasingly fragmented government of lame-duck President Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Beginning in 1994, Iran reportedly launched a training program to build an organization that would be able to challenge and overthrow the Bahraini monarchy. That group is said to have been training at camps in Iran and Lebanon.

Sheik Isa ibn Salman Khalifa, Bahrain’s aging ruler, outlined the details of Bahrain’s charges in a letter to President Clinton on Tuesday.

Iran has denied any link to the unrest in Bahrain or the assassination in Paris.

The alleged Iran-sponsored group was discovered as Bahraini officials have tried to squelch growing unrest over the last 18 months, although the group was said not to be involved in the uprisings. The covert operation was being run by Falahian’s ministry, while the training was done by Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, U.S. officials said.

“These incidents show that Falahian has gained a lot of power and influence. He is now the bad boy of the revolution,” the Pentagon official said.

Administration specialists say that more than 60 Bahrainis have been arrested, and some of the suspects made televised confessions Wednesday, saying they received military training in Iran and Lebanon. The long-term Iranian goal was to build an organization of several thousand to seize power. Caches of light weapons were also uncovered.

“Bahrain has done an effective job of decapitating a very serious Iranian attempt to create a Bahrain Hezbollah organization. But the story is not over,” the Pentagon official said.