Iranian Intelligence Minister Gulam Hussein Mohseni Ejei said 15
Iranians were arrested in connection with the Shiraz bombing. He said
security forces seized explosives, maps and weapons.
For more than a month, Iran denied that the explosion in Shiraz comprised an attack. Instead, Teheran said the explosion in the mosque complex stemmed from a gas leak.
"Bombing oil pipelines had been on the sabotage agenda of this group,
and American centers provided diving lessons for them to identify pipelines
in the Persian Gulf for this aim," Ejei said. "Legal and diplomatic measures
will be taken against the United States and Britain on completion of
investigations and intelligence."
On May 14, Ejei said the squad also planned to attack the Russian
consulate in northern Iran. Russia has been the key supplier to Iran's
nuclear program.
"This network that the Americans had armed with different terrorist
tools such as chemicals, explosive materials, dangerous and poisonous
cyanide was guided directly by American agents into Iran," the Intelligence
Ministry said.
The Intelligence Ministry listed what it termed a range of targets
drafted by the insurgency network. The targets were said to have included
oil pipelines, the annual Teheran book fair as well as scientific, religious
and educational facilities.
"American agents had told members of this network that their main
mission was to spread fear among people in different cities," the ministry
said.
Iran has also charged the U.S. military with shooting toward Iranian
diplomats in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. Iranian Foreign Minister
Manouchehr Mottaki said U.S. agents opened fire on an Iranian embassy
motorcade on May 15, and that three diplomats and an embassy staffer were
injured.
