Downing street denies supporting Bush over Iran attack

By Rich Bowden, M&C Staff Writer Oct 2, 2007, 11:55 GMT

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, left, shakes hands with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, right, in the heavily-fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq Tuesday Oct. 2, 2007. EPA/Lefteris Pitarakis

(M&C) - Downing Street has denied claims by leading US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh that Prime Minister Gordon Brown fully supports President Bush's alleged intention to bomb Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

Writing in the New Yorker magazine Hersh reported "During a secure video conference that took place early this summer, the President told Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, he was thinking of hitting Iranian targets across the border and that the British 'were on board'."

Hersh continued: "The bombing plan has had its most positive reception from the newly elected government of Britain's Prime Minister, Gordon Brown."

However Hersh's claim that Brown was supportive of the attack of the elite Revolutionary Guard was in part out of revenge for the embarrassment caused Britain in March when Guards captured Royal Navy sailors and Marines, has been dismissed by the UK government.

A spokesman for Mr Brown said last night, "The Prime Minister has made clear in the past that there are no such proposals."

Hersh's claim was also denied by Phillip Giraldi, a former CIA counterterrorism officer in an interview with The Independent. Saying the opposite was true, Giraldi told the newspaper, "In fact Robert Gates [the US Defence Secretary] was rebuffed during his recent visit to London when the idea was floated."

"Because British mine-sweepers based in the Gulf of Hormuz will be essential to any US action against Iran, US war planners need to have Britain on board," he said. "So far that is not forthcoming."