WASHINGTON A US lawmaker made a startling revelation at a recent Senate hearing, claiming that some supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan were now going through Iran.
 
Senator Jim Webb, a Virginia Democrat who also served as Secretary of the Navy under President Ronald Reagan, made this revelation at a special hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
 
'General, a question was asked to you about the relationship between Iran and Afghanistan. Is it not true that Iran is now also allowing NATO cargo shipments to pass through Iran into Afghanistan?' asked Senator Webb while addressing Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, head of the US Defence Intelligence Agency.
 
'Sir, I'm not familiar with that,' said the general.
 
'We have been briefed to that effect. So you're not aware that that's going on?' asked the senator.
 
'No, sir,' the general said. 'Ill have to get back to you on that, sir.'
 
If true, this could be as embarrassing as a similar disclosure during another Senate hearing last month when Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that unmanned CIA Predator aircraft operating in Pakistan are flown from an air base in Pakistan.
 
Meanwhile, Gen. Maples and the new US National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair also told the Armed Services Committee that Iran did not have a nuclear weapon and will not have the means to make or launch one for a while. The statement is in strong contradicting media speculations on the imminent threat from Tehran
 
Blair, a retired admiral, and Gen. Maples also said Iran lacked a delivery vehicle for a nuclear weapon but was actively seeking missile upgrades from Russia.
 
Israeli intelligence claims that Iran had 'crossed the threshold' to becoming a nuclear power but Blair said the Israelis were working off the same intelligence and were looking at a 'worst-case scenario.'
 
Tehran has the ability to eventually make a nuclear weapon, but 'We assess that Iran has not yet made that decision,' Blair said.
 
Both Blair and Maples said the earliest Iran could develop nuclear arms is in the time frame of 2010-15.