WASHINGTON (AP) — President Clinton asserted Tuesday the United States did nothing improper in not trying to stop arms shipments from Iran to Bosnia’s battered army. Clinton said he is not concerned about a congressional investigation into whether his inaction led the United States into violating an international arms embargo.On Monday, an administration official said that at a time Bosnia was staggering in its war with Serb rebels, Clinton knew of and did not try to stop arms shipments from Iran through Croatia to Bosnia’s army. Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, the presumptive GOP presidential candidate this fall, has called on Congress to investigate whether there was any wrongdoing on Clinton’s part.
'Absolutely nothing improper...'
“There was absolutely nothing improper done,” Clinton said in response to reporters’ questions as he opened Oval Office talks with Greek Prime Minister Constantine Simitis.Dole was an advocate of lifting the United Nations arms embargo to permit Bosnia to mount an effective defense against the Serbs. And Clinton noted that the GOP leader also contended the United States could do that unilaterally. The United Nations embargo barred weapons shipments to all sides in the Balkan war. The Unite States was not obliged to enforce it, and in 1994 Congress even prohibited any enforcement.
Iran’s clandestine aid helped the Muslims resist Serb rebel attacks in several key parts of the republic. After punitive NATO air attacks on the Bosnian Serbs last summer, Bosnian government forces eventually regained much of the land they had lost. The Bosnian resurgence set the stage for U.S.-led negotiations and a peace accord now being enforced by American and other troops.
The United States did not stand in the way of the wartime Iranian aid because of sympathy for the Muslims, said an official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Clinton knew that Peter W. Galbraith, the U.S. ambassador to Croatia, had no plans to protest to President Franjo Tudjman that Iranian weapons were being channeled through Croatia, the official said.
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