News


Iran/Bosnia Arms
30 May 96 Hearing
House International Relations Committee


(Witnesses: Ambs. Charles Redman & Peter Galbraith)

Washington -- U.S. Ambassador to Germany Charles Redman and U.S. Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith testified May 30 before the House International Relations Committee regarding 1994 Iranian arms shipments to Bosnian government military forces. At the time of these shipments, the Bosnians were in danger of being overwhelmed by Serbian forces armed with tanks and other heavy weapons the Bosnians could not counter.

Ambassador Galbraith said he knew Croatian authorities would interpret his statement that he had no instructions regarding the transshipment of arms from Iran and other countries through Croatia to beleaguered Bosnian forces as meaning that the United States would not object to the move.

Both ambassadors noted at that time that Iran had already been supplying arms to the Bosnians since 1992.

Ambassador Redman said: "In retrospect, I believe that the decision not to oppose the Croatian initiative was crucial to all that followed in the Balkans." He said that after the Serbs overran Gorazde, "the Bosnian government was in dire straits." He contended that if the United States had blocked the Iranian arms supply initiative, "it very likely would have doomed the (Croat-Muslim) Federation and exacerbated an already desperate military situation for the Bosnians.

"Instead," he said, "the Bosnian armed forces held on and began to counterattack. The Federation survived, UNPROFOR remained in place, helping the Bosnians through another difficult winter, and we bought time for a combination of American diplomacy, NATO air power and Croatian and Bosnian military victories, to reach an historic peace agreement in Dayton."

According to Ambassador Galbraith, "it was the war that created the opportunities for the Iranians and other undesirables to come into Bosnia. In fact, there were very serious terrorist threats to Americans, including to the mission for which I am responsible, well before this -- the April 1994 discussions that we were talking about, and those threats were created because of the war.

"Paradoxically," he said, "and I say this -- paradoxically, or perversely, I should say -- perversely, from an Iranian perspective, the decision to permit the transit of arms through Croatia to Bosnia had the unintended, from the Iranian point of view, but nonetheless the very real effect of diminishing the Iranian influence. Why? Because it enabled the Bosnians to defend themselves, to survive, and then, in conjunction with the Croatians, to roll back some of the Serb gains, thus paving the way to the Dayton agreement."

The hearing was called to order by Representative Benjamin Gilman, the committee chairman.