[AFP] Israel says Iran establishing missiles, "terror network" inside Lebanon

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JERUSALEM, July 3 (AFP) - Israel charged Tuesday that Iran is
setting up an international terrorist network in Lebanon, with the
approval of Beirut's powerbroker Syria, to arm Hezbollah guerrillas
and destabilise the Middle East.
"Iran is establishing a consortium of international terrorism in
Lebanon with region-wide implications," said Dore Gold, a top
adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and former Israeli ambassador
to the United Nations.
He told AFP that Tehran's Islamic clerical regime now had
missiles on Lebanese territory that were pointed at Israel and under
the "command-and-control" of Iranian forces.
He also repeated charges that Iran is regularly supplying arms
to Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, who have vowed to continue the
armed fight against the Jewish state until Israel pulls out of the
disputed Shebaa Farms border area.
"Iranian cargo aircraft land at Damascus international airport
from where weaponry is shipped to the Bekaa valley in eastern
Lebanon and supplied to Hezbollah," Gold said.
Israel has in recent days insisted that Hezbollah's cross border
attacks have the full blessing of the Syrian regime of President
Bashar al-Assad.
"Hezbollah camps are located in areas under the direct military
control of Syria, and so Syria's role in the ongoing attacks is
indisuptable," Gold said.
Hezbollah fighters seriously wounded one Israeli soldier in a
rocket and mortar attack on an Israeli post in the Shebaa Farms on
Friday.
Damascus says it backs Beirut's claim to the tiny border region,
although Israel captured the area from Syria in the 1967
Arab-Israeli war.
Despite the claims, the United Nations verified that Israel has
completely pulled out of south Lebanon after more than two decades
of occupation last year.
Following the Hezbollah attack, Israeli warplanes on Sunday
pounded a Syrian radar post in the Bekaa, where many of the more
than 20,000 Syrian troops in Lebanon are located, wounding at least
one Lebanese and two Syrian soldiers.
Hezbollah retaliated with another bombardment which it claimed
knocked out a major Israeli radar and surveillance facility. Israel
has not commented on the claim.