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Israel charges Iran with supporting Palestinian war effort

Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Saturday, June 9, 2001

JERUSALEM Ñ Israel has for the first time issued a detailed account of Iranian support to the Palestinians in their war against the Jewish state.

Israeli officials said Teheran sends weapons to Syria. From there, they are relayed to Lebanon and received by the Hizbullah and the Islamic Jihad.

The Iranian weapons are then smuggled to the West Bank and Gaza Strip through neighboring countries such as Jordan and Egypt. The officials said Egypt has done little to stop the smuggling, although Jordan has taken preventive measures.

Officials said several squads of Palestinian attackers have already infiltrated Israel and are preparing attacks on Israeli civilian targets. The result has been a high alert by Israeli security forces.

Israel has raised the weapons issue with Egypt, the officials said. Cairo has not acknowledged that the Palestinians are smuggling the weapons through the Sinai peninsula and over the border into the Gaza city of Rafah.

"We can't say Egypt is actively helping the Palestinians smuggle weapons," a senior Israeli military official said. "What we can say is that Egypt has done very little."

The United States has also raised the assertions of Palestinian weapons smuggling through Egypt with President Hosni Mubarak. A key issue concerns Israeli charges that the Egyptian border at Rafah is virtually open for Palestinians, leaving Israeli soldiers to try to stop infiltration and smuggling under fire from snipers in Rafah.

The Israeli assertion was issued during Israel's current ceasefire with the Palestinians. Officials said the ceasefire would continue until the launching of a major Palestinian attack on Israeli civilians.

But Science Minister Matan Vilnai said Cabinet ministers would not automatically approve any military response to a Palestinian attack. Vilnai said the key would be whether the proposed Israeli target is deemed as connected to the Palestinian attackers.

On early Friday, Palestinian gunners fired mortars toward Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.

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