Iran to host terror summit in April

WASHINGTON Ñ The United States has confirmed that leading terrorist groups met recently in Beirut. Diplomatic sources say Iran will host a followup meeting in April.

U.S. officials said the meeting took place around Jan. 24 in Beirut and included leading terrorist agents Ñ such as the Hizbullah Ñ sponsored by Iran.

At the meeting, the terrorist groups and Iranian officials discussed cooperation in the launching of attacks against Israeli and U.S. targets, the officials said.

Iran is planning another terrorism conference to be held in Teheran, tentatively on April 24, Middle East Newsline reported.

Iran is regarded as the main financial supporter of the Palestinian Islamic opposition and Hizbullah. Arab diplomatic sources said Iran provides Lebanese and Palestinian allies about $100 million a year.

The April conference is expected to include representatives from the Lebanese Hizbullah and the Damascus-based Hamas and Islamic Jihad Palestinian groups. The Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command is also expected to attend.

The sources said invitations have already been sent by Iran. The organizer of the conference is Hojatoleslam Ali Akbar Mohtashemi-Pur, an Iranian parliamentarian and secretary-general of the International Conference on Palestine.

Mohtashemi-Pur toured the Middle East earlier this month and met with envoys of Palestinian groups and Hizbullah. A former Iranian ambassador to Syria, Mohtashemi-Pur is regarded as the architect of the Iranian sponsorship of Hizbullah in the 1980s.

In a related development, a leading Egyptian fugitive, Rifai Ahmed Taha, a senior member of the outlawed Gamiat Islamiya, has called for Islamic attacks on American Jews. In a fatwa, or religious ruling, Taha called on Muslims to "kill American Jews wherever they can be found."

Referring to the Beirut meeting, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said: "We believe the participants included Hizbullah and Palestinian rejectionist groups, but we have no information on other participants."

But officials appeared to rule out that Lebanon would be termed as a nation that sponsors terrorism by allowing the terrorist to convene. They said such a move would hurt current U.S. efforts to ensure quiet along the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Boucher suggested, however, that State Department would include the meeting in its annual report on terrorism. He said the issue of terrorism in Lebanon is a "complicated issue."

"We have bilateral cooperation with Lebanon," Boucher said. "We work with Lebanon on the issue of terrorism. We all know that there are groups that continue to operate in this area, but as for our assessment of the situation, I think I'll invite you to wait until the terrorism report comes out."