http://www.boston.com/dailynews/014/world/Israelis_say_Palestinians_form:.shtml

Israelis say Palestinians forming strategic alliance with Iran; Palestinians deny it

By Steve Weizman, Associated Press, 1/14/2002 19:22

JERUSALEM (AP) Israeli officials say the Palestinian Authority and Iran are forming a strategic alliance, with Tehran supplying arms and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia hoping to set up a terror network in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The Palestinian Authority called the allegations absurd and an effort to undermine the organization.

The Israeli military has been saying for days that the Karine A, a freighter seized by commandos in the Red Sea on Jan. 3, was loaded mostly with Iranian-made weapons and bound for the Palestinian Authority. On Monday Israeli allegations became more strident.

Military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz was quoted as saying that Yasser Arafat's close aides have been in direct contact with ''the most senior levels in Tehran'' since April.

''A most dangerous axis began to be created, consisting of an attempt to infiltrate the region,'' Mofaz was quoted as saying by the Israeli daily, Yediot Ahronot.

Israeli government adviser Dore Gold said that after Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000, Iran began to look for ways to involve Lebanon's Hezbollah militia in the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

''Iranian involvement in the Karine A affair reinforces the impression it is seeking a regional role, largely by meddling in terrorism,'' Gold said.

Israeli intelligence officials cited in a Yediot Ahronot analysis said they have intercepted messages between the PA and Tehran and have evidence Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approved the loading of the Karine A off the Iranian coast.

Iran has said it had no connection with the ship.

The Palestinian information minister, Yasser Abed Rabbo, denied the claims of a strategic alliance with Iran, saying they were part of a disinformation campaign to isolate the authority internationally.

''These allegations are absurd,'' he said. ''They are trying to spread the news that there is an alleged coalition between us and Iran and Hezbollah ... because they want to frighten the United States, Europe and some Arab countries.''

Boaz Ganor, head of Israel's International Policy Institute for Counter Terrorism, said relations between Iran and the Palestinians cooled considerably after the 1993 Oslo peace accords between Israel and the PLO. Iran fiercely opposed any recognition of the Jewish state.

But, he added, since the outbreak of renewed fighting between Israelis and Palestinians in September 2000, Iran has been looking at the Palestinian Authority as an increasingly attractive ally, while the cash-strapped Palestinians need a sponsor.

''Once the PA made a decision to choose the path of violence, other foreign benefactors became less likely to help it, while Iran became more sympathetic,'' Ganor said.

Hezbollah is the main instrument of Tehran's influence in the Palestinian territories, he said, sharing fundamentalist Islamic beliefs with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas groups.

''It has also managed to recruit Israeli Arabs to help prepare a terror infrastructure,'' Ganor said. ''I can't see that happening without Iranian government approval.''

-- Anonymous, January 15, 2002