Iran Denies Iraq Weapons Charges

Iran on Monday rejected U.S. accusations that the highest levels Iranian leadership has armed insurgents in Iraq with armor-piercing roadside bombs.

"Such accusations cannot be relied upon or be presented as evidence. The United States has a long history in fabricating evidence. Such charges are unacceptable," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters.

U.S. military officials in Baghdad on Sunday accused the Iranian leadership of arming Shiite militants in Iraq with the sophisticated bombs that have killed more than 170 troops from the American-led coalition.

According to Kevin Whitelaw, Senior Editor at the U.S. News And World Report, "The past two weeks have been demoralizing, with a handful of U.S. helicopters shot down and Baghdad convulsed by its own surge of suicide bombings and sectarian killings."

The deadly and highly sophisticated weapons the U.S. military said it traced to Iran are known as "explosively formed penetrators," or EFPs. Three senior military officials in Baghdad said the "machining process" used in the construction of the deadly bombs had been traced to Iran.

The diabolic genius of the device that has killed 170 coalition soldiers so far is the concave lid. When a vehicle triggers an infra-red motion detector, the explosive charge propels the lid, which changes shape in flight into a molten slug able to penetrate the thickest armor, making it a sophisticated killing device, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.

Ahmadinejad's flat denial did little to soften the convictions of the White House. But at the same time, officials are trying to play down the story.

Bush administration spokesman Tony Snow said Monday the U.S. remains confident that the Tehran government is approving the weapons shipments. Snow adds that if Iran's president wants to change that, the hope is he will do that "real soon."

Snow also says the recent reports about Iran's involvement merely present the evidence of it, and he accuses reporters of trying to "whip this up," by hinting the U.S. might go after Iran.

Back in Tehran, the Iranian president says he opposes any bloodshed in Iraq. He told ABC News that any problems in Iraq should be solved through talks.

CBS News consultant and Iran expert Reza Aslan tells Martin that supplying the device might be Iran's way of saying "if you want us to stop, let's talk."

But administration officials say one of the arguments against holding talks with Iran now is that the United States would be negotiating from a position of weakness, Martin reports.

Meanwhile, a U.S. general says the Army is moving quickly to put new armor on Humvees that have become a prime target of the EFPs in Iraq. The Washington Post reports there's a shortage of armor for the vehicles at the same time they're facing a rising threat from EFPs.

U.S. intelligence says the weapons are going to Shiite militias that include rogue elements of Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi army militia and a breakaway faction of the Badr Corps, the armed wing of a powerful Shiite party, reports CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan.

Hosseini said Iran's top leaders were not intervening in Iraq and considered "any intervention in Iraq's internal affairs as a weakening of the popular Iraqi government, and we are opposed to that."

The U.S. military presentation in Baghdad was the result of weeks of preparation as U.S. officials put together a package of material to support claims by the Bush administration of Iranian intercession on behalf of militant Iraqis fighting American forces.

The U.S. military experts alleged that the supply trial began with Iran's Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, which they said report directly to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The U.S. officials in Baghdad claimed the EFPs, as well as Iranian-made mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades, have been supplied to "rogue elements" of the Mahdi Army militia of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who is a key backer of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Many key government figures and members of Iraq's Shiite political leadership have deep ties to Iran, having spent decades there in exile during Saddam Hussein's rule. But Iran has repeatedly denied that it has armed the Shiite militias in the neighboring country.

Hosseini also addressed another contentious issue between Washington and Tehran — Iran's nuclear program.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman said Iran was ready to negotiate with the international community but would not agree to the precondition that it suspend uranium enrichment first.

Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday also vowed to continue moving forward with enrichment but — in a softening of his usual fiery rhetoric — said Tehran was open to dialogue.

The U.S. and its allies accuse Iran of secretly developing atomic weapons, but Iran has repeatedly denied the charges, saying its program is solely for peaceful purposes.

In December, the U.N. Security Council imposed limited sanctions on Iran over its refusal to roll back its nuclear program and suspend uranium enrichment. Iran faces further sanctions later this month if it does not halt enrichment.