Iran Reportedly Paid U.S. $30 Million for Weapons

Tehran paid $30 million for the U.S.-sanctioned shipment of weapons, a top Iranian leader said on Friday.

Parliamentary Speaker Hashemi Rafsanjani said Iran has been able to buy U.S. arms through middlemen “for the past five or six years,” but that direct sales from the United States have involved just one planeload, as President Reagan stated. Iran paid $30 million for the shipment, Rafsanjani said.

Rafsanjani, who first referred to the arms transactions in a speech a month ago, reiterated Iran’s denial that previous shipments came from or through Israel, but left open the possibility that dealers might have lied to Iranian authorities on itineraries of aircraft delivering arms.

The controversial May 28 arms delivery to Tehran by Robert C. McFarlane, Reagan’s former national security adviser, showed “the delivery was approved by the U.S. government,” Rafsanjani said.

McFarlane was accompanied by a planeload of military supplies, in what the Reagan Administration said was an effort to enhance the U.S. position with moderates in Iran and secure the release of American hostages in Lebanon.

Rafsanjani suggested the row over the revelation that some of the proceeds from the sale were funneled to Nicaraguan rebels was an attempt to cover up the real issue, which he said was Iran’s political victory over Washington.

“How much profit could there be” in a $30-million deal? he asked. He added that Tehran has not paid a $15-million bill related to the shipment. It was not clear from his remarks whether the $15 million was part of the $30-million total.