Tuesday, November 30, 2010

2003 Armenian Arms Procurement for Iran

There simply are lines that you do not cross.

I've been following the WikiLeaks documents about Armenia and the banditocracy and so far all the information looks OK. Unfortunately, there is one bomb so far where it is revealed that Armenia re-exported arms to Iran which were later found at a scene of an attack on US soldiers in Iraq.

This is very disturbing for American-Armenians. American-Armenians want to see Armenia as an ally to the US. Selling arms to Iran and other terrorists is contrary to these wishes.

[...]Secretary Rice, Assistant Secretary Fried, Deputy Assistant
Secretary Bryza, and Ambassador Yovanovitch have raised with you our
deep concerns about Armenia's transfer of arms to Iran which
resulted in the death and injury of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
Notwithstanding the close relationship between our countries,
neither the Administration nor the U.S. Congress can overlook this
case. By law, the transfer of these weapons requires us to consider
whether there is a basis for the imposition of U.S. sanctions. If
sanctions are imposed, penalties could include the cutoff of U.S.
assistance and certain export restrictions.

To avoid such sanctions, it is essential that you present
compelling evidence that your government is now in partnership with
us to ensure such transfers do not occur in the future.

To convince the United States that this will not happen again,
we seek a written agreement from Armenia, memorializing its intent
to implement measures that will prevent Armenia from becoming a
source of weapons for Iran or other states or groups involved with
terrorism and/or weapons proliferation. [...] The full text is available here.

The accusations might be baseless or false but the fact that Yerevan has declined to comment on them indicates otherwise.

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