IN 1994-1995, while publicly backing the United Nations Bosnian arms embargo, the Clinton administration consciously failed to stop the flow of weapons from Iran to the beleaguered Bosnian government, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday.
The White House denies it broke the UN embargo which apparently did not specifically forbid air supplies.
"The United States has always maintained that it upheld the letter of the law and the requirements of the UN Security Council resolution," a White House spokesman said, declining further comment.
Quoting senior US officials and other sources, the Los Angeles Times reported that Mr Clinton approved the arms shipments even though the US had pledged to uphold the UN embargo and had a policy "of isolating Tehran globally as a supporter of terrorism."
It said two top US diplomats acting on White House and State Department instructions, told the Croatian President, Dr Franjo Tudjman, in early 1994 that Washington "would not object to the creation of an arms pipeline that would channel the weapons through Croatia and into Bosnia Herzegovina for the forces of the Muslim led government.
Dr Tudjman raised the idea of the secret shipments and asked what the US response would be, the Times quoted its sources as saying. At the time, the United States was publicly committed to the arms embargo and US allies in Europe were concerned that an influx, of arms would escalate the civil war in Bosnia.
"But after consultations with the National Security Adviser, Mr Anthony Lake, and the Deputy Secretary of State, Mr Strobe Talbott, the two US diplomats - Mr Charles Redman and Mr Peter W Galbraith - relayed to Dr Tudjman that there would be no US protest over the smuggling operation," the paper said.
"Specifically, the US officials were told to say they had `no instructions' concerning Iranian arms shipments - a diplomatic way of saying America would not object," it added.
President Clinton directly participated in the decision, the newspaper quoted a senior administration official as saying.
After the US decision, Dr Tudjman was free to allow Iran to launch large scale arms transfers through Croatia, an operation that continued until January this year, the Los Angeles Times said.
US forces will stay in Bosnia as part of Nato to secure the agreement until the end of 1996. Opponents of US intervention say, in the words of retired Rear Admiral Eugene J. Carroll: "Since a one year Nato presence cannot possibly resolve the fundamental political, ethnic, economic, religious and historic problems that drive the conflicts in Bosnia, withdrawal of these forces will unleash renewed violence at even higher levels of destructive force with new weapons.
. A sombre President Clinton planted a tree at the White House yesterday to honour the Commerce Secretary, Mr Ron Brown, and the 34 others who died in plane crash in Croatia on Wednesday. Mr Clinton and his wife, Hillary, shovelled earth around a blossoming white dogwood tree in a grove of ivy and white and yellow daffodils.
Earlier yesterday a US military spokesman in Dubrovnik, Croatia told reporters that rescuers had completed the removal of 35 bodies from the site of Mr Brown's plane crash.
The US Defence Secretary, Mr William Perry, said on Thursday the crash appeared to be an accident caused by faulty instruments and he essentially ruled out ground fire as an explanation.