Iran inspects damage in Lebanon caused by retaliatory strike against Hizbullah

NICOSIA [MENL] -- A group of Iranian government experts toured the damage from retaliatory Israeli air strikes in Lebanon on Monday as part of an agreement to help Beirut reconstruct the bridges and power plants destroyed last week.

The group arrived on Sunday night hours following a commitment by Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi that Iran would help repair the damage from the Israeli air strikes. The air strikes came after the Iranian-backed Hizbullah rained Katyusha rockets on northern Israeli towns.

Syria said it would also help reconstruct the damaged infrastructure. A Saudi prince announced he was donating $30 million toward the effort.

Lebanese officials said the reconstruction would take months. They said much of Lebanon would remain without steady electricity and telephone service until the power plants and exchanges are repaired.

On Tuesday, a five-nation panel will discuss 14 Lebanese complaints and 10 Israeli complaints connected to last week's fighting. On Monday, Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier over Beirut in what officials said was an attempt to intimidate residents of the city.

Earlier, Israeli leaders refused to receive a French Foreign Ministry envoy to discuss the fighting. Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon said the envoy, Yves Aubin de la Messuzieres, focused only on Israeli strikes and ignored Hizbullah rocket attack. The French Foreign Ministry official met briefly with a mid-level Israeli official and then went to Gaza for talks with the Palestinian Authority.

In Israel's Knesset, or parliament, Defense Minister Moshe Arens said he hoped Syria understood that it would have to restrain Hizbullah to renew talks with the Jewish state.

"I think that the only condition for talks with Syria is complete quiet in north and that Hizbullah end its activities," he said. "I hope that the military operation will bring peace and quiet to the northern border."

Arens blasted Lebanese leaders as being quislings of the Syrian government. "The collaborators in Lebanon are [President] Emile Lahoud and [Prime Minister] Salim Hoss and the entire gallery that serves Syria to get their daily instructions," he added.

Former Prime Minister Shimon Peres of the Labor Party said the incoming government led by Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak would reexamine Israel's presence in Lebanon.

In an unrelated development, Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlas met on Monday with the Gen. Cameron Ross, head of United Nations peacekeepers on the Golan Heights. Officials said the discussion focused on the UN supervision of the ceasefire and disengagement accords between Israel and Syria signed in 1974.