Western diplomat familiar with the incident said the United States had multiple streams of intelligence connecting the Armenian arms shipments to Iran with the deaths of U.S. soldiers in 2007 in Iraq. When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice confronted President Sargsyan with this intelligence in 2008 on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, he denied knowing anything about the matter. In a letter to Sargsyan, Secretary Rice wrote: "Such cooperation with Iran, a known state sponsor of terrorism and supplier of arms to terrorist groups and other non-state actors, is unacceptable," instructing U.S. diplomats to pressure the Government of Armenia to take responsibility for the transfer and threaten it with sanctions. Assistant Secretary Fried, Deputy Assistant Secretary Bryza, and then Ambassador Yovanovitch also raised deep concerns about Armenia's transfer of arms to Iran which resulted in the death and injury of US soldiers in Iraq. American intelligence revealed and documented almost all of the details concerning the Armenian weapons deal. The finding confirms that the RPG-22 anti-tank rockets were manufactured at the Vazovski Mashinostroitelni Zavodi and that the machine guns were manufactured by the Bulgarian weapons manufacturer Arsenal. Upon the purchase and subsequent shipment of the weapons to Armenia, they were immediately shipped to Iran. The transaction was made between the partially state-owned company Zao Veber and Abbas Abdi Asjerd, an Iranian arms dealer. It is alleged that the weapons were paid for by the Iranian government, but the money trail was covered by having it go through an Armenian bank. Expressing the frustration of the United States government, Negroponte wrote to Sargsyan, "Notwithstanding the close relationship between our countries, neither the Administration nor the U.S. Congress can overlook this case... The direct role of high-level Armenian officials and the link of the weapons to an attack on U.S. forces make this case unique and highly troubling. ...By law, the transfer of these weapons requires us to consider whether there is a basis for the imposition of U.S. sanctions. If sanctions are imposed, penalties could include the cutoff of U.S. assistance and certain export restrictions." The Deputy Secretary noted to Sargsyan that a team will be sent to Armenia to seek written agreement that Armenia will take steps to ensure that it will not become a source of weapons for Iran or other states or groups of concern and that the team would also present additional information that would