Iran helped cultivate Mideast crisis, US says

The Boston Globe

WASHINGTON -- "What began as a kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by Lebanese militants is now being seen by some senior Bush administration officials as a defining moment in a far larger struggle by Iran and its allies against the United States and the West.

Although US officials say they have no evidence that Iran directly ordered the Islamic extremist movement Hezbollah to carry out the kidnapping, they contend that the move was part of a coordinated effort by groups allied with Iran to frustrate US interests across the Middle East.

'We see this as a power play by Iran,' said a senior US official who has been closely following the developments in the Middle East." Continue.