Iran denies secret arms agreement with Syria

Iran on Sunday dismissed a widely circulated report alleging a $1-billion arms pact with Syria, terming it a “media ploy” meant to poison relations between Tehran and Damascus.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Syrian President Bashar Assad and other allies in Damascus on Thursday, part of an effort to bolster the anti-U.S. and anti-Israel bloc led by Tehran. But Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Hosseini, speaking to reporters at his weekly briefing, denied that a secret arms deal was made at the session.

“I should say it is another media ploy against Iran and Syria, and there is no such thing,” he said. “During the visit, Iranian and Syrian officials discussed major regional issues including developments in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine.”

He added that Iran and Syria also discussed unspecified “economic and technical” cooperation.

The alleged arms deal was reported Saturday by the Saudi-funded Asharq al Awsat, an Arabic newspaper based in London. The report said Iran would provide Syria the money to purchase weapons if the government in Damascus rejected any peace offer from Israel.

According to the report, Iran offered to fund the purchase of 400 Russian tanks, 24 Russian warplanes and other military equipment.

The report, which cited unnamed sources and was written by an Iranian opponent to the clerical regime in Tehran, caused a stir in Israel, which has contemplated the idea of coaxing Syria away from Iran.

Some Israelis expressed doubts about the report.

A writer for the daily newspaper Haaretz warned that it “should be read with great caution.”

Iran and its allies are locked in a rivalry with the U.S. and Israel, which oppose Tehran’s efforts to obtain advanced nuclear technology.

Despite the tensions, Iran and the U.S. have agreed to a second round of talks about the security situation in Iraq. Baghdad’s Shiite Muslim-dominated government depends on the U.S. military for its survival but shares strong ties with the largely Shiite Iran.

The talks are to be held Tuesday in Baghdad, the Iraqi foreign minister said Sunday.

“I can confirm that the United States and Iran have agreed to meet on July 24th in Baghdad,” Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told the Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Iran and the U.S. each accuse the other of playing disruptive roles in Iraq.

Hosseini said Iran would probably press the U.S. during the talks for the release of five Iranian officials detained in a January 2007 raid in northern Iraq.

The U.S. accuses them of being spies linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Tehran says they are diplomats.

“We will exhaust all our capacity to get them released,” Hosseini said.