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Israel orders intelligence focus on new Palestinian alliance with Iran

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Wednesday, January 16, 2002

TEL AVIV Ñ Israel believes the Palestinian Authority has formed a strategic alliance with Iran and has ordered intelligence agencies to focus their efforts accordingly.

Israeli officials said the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has become alarmed by the increase in Iranian aid to Hizbullah and the Palestinian Authority. They said that after years of enmity Iran has reconciled with the PA and is ready to supply a range of missile and rockets to the regime of Yasser Arafat.

Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer ordered intelligence agencies to increase their monitoring of PA ties with Iran and Hizbullah, the officials said. The minister is said to have termed these ties as a strategic threat against Israel, Middle East Newsline reported.


Gepstrategy-Direct, Jan. 22: Arafat forged secret alliance with Iran

A classified report by Israel's Foreign Ministry research and intelligence division said Teheran is concerned that Arafat will implement a ceasefire and has pledged to ensure the supply of weaponry that will both continue the war against Israel and increase Palestinian military capability. The report said the Karine-A episode is the "tip of the iceberg" in Iranian efforts to provide military support to the Palestinians.

Israeli intelligence asserts that the watershed took place last summer, months after the capture of the Palestinian-bought ship Santorini. Arafat agreed to align himself with Iran and a dialogue was launched between the Palestinian leader and Khamenei. The two men decided to shelve their differences regarding the 1993 Oslo agreement, repeatedly condemned by Teheran.

Last month, Arafat approved the sending of Karine-A freighter to the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian agents were ordered to bribe Egyptian officials to ensure that the ship would move through the Suez Canal without disruption. U.S. officials said Washington has helped Israel in efforts to stop the smuggling of Iranian weapons to the Palestinian Authority. They said the U.S. Sixth Fleet has been ordered to stop and search suspicious ships believed heading for Lebanon or the Gaza coast. The officials confirmed the search of a ship in the Mediterranean last week.

The Foreign Ministry report warned that the Islamic clergy led by Khamenei would be bolstered in their effort unless the international community takes action against Teheran. Khamenei has launched a crackdown on reformers in Iran aligned with President Mohammed Khatami.

Officials said Israel is pressing Washington to elevate Iran to that of a strategic priority. They want the Bush administration to press Russia to stop nuclear and missile technology to Teheran. Transportation Minister Ephraim Sneh wants the White House to deem Iran as the next target in the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

"Iran wants to do with the population in the central sector of Israel what it did with northern residents -- to build a network of rockets that will cover most of the country's population," Sneh said.

The U.S.-Israeli strategic dialogue begins on Wednesday with the arrival of Undersecretary of State John Bolton to Israel. "I think it is an opportunity for them to discuss nonproliferation issues," State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker said on Tuesday.

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