One of the U.S. officials said that during last summer’s war between Hizbullah and Israel, Iran air-freighted munitions to Lebanon via Damascus. Since then, two of the officials indicated, intel agencies believe Tehran has sent several trainloads of weapons to its Lebanese allies; the train that crashed is the first such shipment ever intercepted. Intel officials see mounting evidence that Iran is arming anti-American forces. Iran has sent weapons to Shia militias in Iraq, and there’s some evidence that Iranian operatives have also sent arms to Sunni insurgents, as well as to resurgent Taliban forces in Afghanistan. Two of the U.S. officials said that many U.S. analysts believe someone high up in the Tehran regime must be authorizing the arms deliveries. But one U.S. and two British officials (who, concerned about diplomatic sensitivity, also asked for anonymity) said there was no smoking-gun intercept or document proving the ayatollahs’ complicity.
