Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer has said he would ask Washington to target al-Qaeda units which he said were joining the Lebanese Resistance Hizbullah guerrillas in south Lebanon, according to AFP.
"Hizbullah is one of the most aggressive, dramatic terrorist organizations in the world," Ben Eliezer told reporters Tuesday after he met for about 45 minutes with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
"Al-Qaeda, as you have heard, is entering Hizbullah in Lebanon and if they work together this is not a great thing to the free world," the Israeli high ranking official said.
Ben Eliezer said he would share intelligence reports with U.S. officials when he arrives in Washington on Wednesday.
"Hopefully they will consider that Hizbullah, definitely with the immediate reinforcement given by al-Qaeda, that they will be a target that has to be considered by the Americans," he said.
"All the information is coming to us, and I think that I am going to share this information with our friends and allies the Americans," he added.
Asked if he could prove his allegations about al-Qaeda, the network headed by Osama Bin Laden, the Israeli minister replied, "The information has just arrived. I don't know, this has to be proved, I don't know what."
But he added that he conferred last week with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who was "more than worried about developments that might take place if the escalation from Hizbullah, from Iran and from the Palestinians will continue." (Albawaba.com)
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