With the Administration otherwise warning loudly about the dangers posed by Iran, the blind eye to Teheran's arming of the Bosnian Muslims reflects some of the contradictions that run through American policy in Bosnia.

Since early in his tenure, Mr. Clinton has said the embargo on arms shipments to the Bosnian Government should be lifted. But with Britain, France and Russia still opposed to that step, he has resisted pressure from Republicans, including Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, who want the United States to begin its own arms shipments.

Mr. Clinton has said it would be unwise for the United States to flout the United Nations resolution. But today his top aides noted carefully that nothing in the resolution requires the United States to report violations.

Still, one senior official acknowledged, there is some discomfort within the Administration about a policy that has allowed Iran to emerge as the most important source of arms to the Bosnian Government. "To the extent that this contributes to the spread of fundamentalism in a country that is Muslim but very secular, it could have very worrisome implications over time," the official said.

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Among the critics of the Administration's policy, Senator Dole has been the most outspoken in objecting to its refusal to take responsibility for arming the Bosnian Muslims. He has said he intends to ask the Senate next month to open the way to that arms flow, which he has cast as a moral obligation to level the battlefield in a war in which the Bosnian Serbs have held the upper hand.

After Congress passed legislation that would have cut off all money for enforcing the embargo by Nov. 15, the Administration directed the United States military to stop enforcing the prohibition. Even that step angered Britain, France and other countries whose forces are among the United Nations peacekeepers in Bosnia and who have warned that any new flow of arms to either side in the war will only make future battles more violent.

In acknowledging today that they had decided months earlier not to interfere with the Iranian shipments, senior Administration officials said they recognized that the decision would cause friction. But they argued that the illegal flow of arms to the Bosnian Muslims has lagged far behind what has continued to flow to the Bosnian Serbs.

Nearly all of the Iranian shipments have been by air, the officials said, with Boeing 747 aircraft delivering the cargo to Croatia and trucks carrying it onward into Bosnia. That has limited the volume and sophistication of the weapons provided to the Bosnian forces.

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A senior Administration official said the shipments continued steadily through the winter and may help the Bosnian Government forces make limited gains as the fighting steps up with warmer weather. But the official said that while the new arms have narrowed the gap between the Bosnian Muslims and the Bosnian Serbs, it "is still pretty wide."

-------------------- French Peacekeeper Shot Dead

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina, April 14 (AP) -- The United Nations condemned the killing of a French peacekeeper in Sarajevo today, as United Nations forces faced a series of attacks and harassment throughout Bosnia.

France's Prime Minister, Edouard Balladur, demanded that the United Nations find and punish the killer of the soldier who was shot in the neck while driving through the suburb of Dobrinja this morning. It was not clear which side fired.

In other incidents today, two Pakistani peacekeepers were wounded when a United Nations convoy came under fire from Bosnian Serb positions southeast of Tuzla, and a French Puma helicopter was fired on by both Bosnian Serb and Muslim-led Government forces north of Sarajevo.