Britain warns Iran over terror links

Tony Blair yesterday hardened his position on Iran as he openly warned the regime against interfering in Iraq and told it to end its support for terrorist groups.

In a gesture towards the increasingly bellicose US position towards Iran, the prime minister coupled an upbeat tone about reform across the Middle East with a warning to Tehran not to interfere or to underwrite al-Qaida or Palestinian terrorism.

Syria was being sent a similar message. He said: "If we do get the Middle East peace process under way, it is important that Syria and Iran do not back terrorists" who are seeking to undermine the diplomatic road map.

Though he couched his words in much softer language than that deployed against Tehran by senior US officials - and brushed aside speculation about any future American assault on Iran - Mr Blair insisted: "The message is the same."

It emerged yesterday that the tough line towards Iran contemplated by the Bush administration is partly driven by intelligence reports that al-Qaida leaders are being sheltered by the Iranian revolutionary guards at one of the former shah's hunting lodges.

The clues that led to the grand lodge surfaced after an air crash in February outside the city of Kerman in which 200 soldiers from the revolutionary guards died.

According to a Washington source, the crash produced intelligence that the revolutionary guards were "hosting" the al-Qaida group's leaders. One theory is that the soldiers were returning from a tour of duty as guards at the lodge.

Remarks by Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, this week show Washington is stepping up its "axis of evil" rhetoric against Tehran, insisting that Iran has active ties with al-Qaida and is busily developing a nuclear weapon.

Mr Blair was more cautious yesterday: "We have established over a couple of years now a dialogue with the Iranian government that we value.

"But it's got to be on the basis of some honest talking about what is acceptable and unacceptable ... it is important to have frank conversations about the concerns we see."

The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, has invested time and travel in rebuilding diplomatic ties with Iran, where the reformist presidency of Mohammad Khatami is currently stalled by the veto enjoyed by the senior Shia clergy in the guardian council. They provide support for powerful Iraqi Shia clerics, notably Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, now returning to Iraq from exile with their own military forces and power base.

As such, they pose a direct challenge to the pluralistic nation-building aspirations expressed by Mr Blair and more optimistic elements in the Bush administration.

"Everyone is aware of history in relation to Iran, Iraq and the present regime in Iran. But the most evident thing we have found among Iraqis of whatever religious denomination is a desire to be in charge of their own country and not have outside interference from anywhere," Mr Blair said.

The US claims of Iranian al-Qaida links come at a time when Washington has been attempting to increase pressure on Tehran to hand over al-Qaida suspects and cease work on its nuclear programme.

The administration claims communications about this month's suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia were traced to Iran and al-Qaida leaders.

According to a report in Newsday yesterday, the Pentagon also believes that the Iranian nuclear bomb project has "passed the point of no return".

Iran's foreign minister, Kamal Kharazzi, defended the nuclear programme yesterday as a purely peaceful project and reiterated that Tehran would not sign up to the International Atomic Energy Agency's "go-anywhere" inspections without a relaxing of international sanctions that block access to nuclear technology.

In a speech to a conference of Islamic countries, Mr Kharazzi said Iran had nothing to do with the "fanatic and perverted beliefs" of al-Qaida, and that it would abide by the decisions of the IAEA.

Iran says it has arrested and deported around 500 al-Qaida members and is interrogating a "handful" of other suspects.

"The steps that the Iranians claim to have taken in terms of capturing al-Qaida are insufficient," Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said.

The deputy US secretaries of state and defence, Richard Armitage and Paul Wolfowitz, and the deputy head of the US national security council, Stephen Hadley, are due to meet today to discuss a draft "national security decision" directive, which would reset US policy on Iran.

The Pentagon is pushing for an aggressive policy aimed at "regime change" in Tehran.

Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defence for policy, caused a row by promoting the idea of destabilising the Iranian government by force.