Bosnia Has Cut Spy Links to Iran, U.S. Says

The government of Bosnia-Herzegovina has assured the United States that it has severed all military and intelligence relationships with Iran, State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said Thursday.

Burns was responding to a story in The Times quoting U.S. intelligence sources as saying that Bosnia’s Muslim government is in the process of setting up an underground intelligence service run by Hasan Cengic, a former deputy defense minister with close links to Tehran.

“That was a very interesting story in The Times, but a lot of it had quoted intelligence sources and I can’t talk about intelligence sources . . . or intelligence issues. We never do that in a public forum,” Burns said.

But Burns did say that the Bosnian government “is not conducting, we believe, an operational intelligence program with the Iranian government or a military assistance program with the Iranian government.”

Asked if Cengic is acting independently of the government, Burns said: “He would have to be, because we have firm, ironclad commitments, publicly made by the Bosnian government, not to engage in this activity. And we monitor their compliance with those promises continually.”

Cengic was forced to step down from his post in the defense ministry in November under intense pressure from the United States. The administration threatened to withhold $100 million worth of military aid to the Bosnian military as long as Cengic held an official post.

According to intelligence sources, a classified report says Cengic has taken on an unofficial but powerful role for Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic. Asked about the report, administration officials involved with U.S. policy in Bosnia said they have not yet determined whether the information concerning Cengic is entirely accurate.

Because Burns refused to discuss intelligence issues, he did not confirm or deny the existence of the intelligence report. He limited his answer to the official positions adopted by the U.S. and Bosnian governments.

“It has been a condition of our train-and-equip program for Bosnia-Herzegovina that it sever its military and operational intelligence links to Iran,” Burns said. “And we believe the Bosnian government is complying with that commitment that was given to us by President Izetbegovic.

“The Iranians are being edged out of Bosnia by the United States and our Muslim partners,” Burns said. “And that, strategically, is a very good thing. And we really hope that the European countries, our allies in Western Europe, would see the strategic wisdom of this program and join us. It would be a stronger program if we had the support of Western Europe. But thankfully we have the support of a number of Muslim countries.”