The Lebanese Hizbollah movement has received 8,000 Katyusha rockets from Iran via Syria, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Monday.
“Netanya is now within Hizbollah rocket range from south Lebanon. Iran's Shihab-3 missile, meanwhile, can reach almost all of Israel, carrying either a chemical or biological warhead,” he told the Jerusalem Post newspaper.
Describing Iran as "the mother of international terrorism," Ben-Eliezer said one of the aims of his visit to the United States later this week would be to discuss ways to tackle the Iranian problem, which he alleged threatened “not just Israel, but also the Arabian Gulf and the world's oil supplies.”
In four years, he added, Iran would also have nuclear capability.
Citing reliable sources, Haaretz newspaper said that the Katyusha rockets were airlifted in by giant Antonov-124 transport planes that landed at Damascus International Airport.
The equipment was then transported to the storage facilities of the Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon, and to the Hizbollah, they added.
According to the paper, security experts estimate that some of the equipment will be smuggled to Palestinian organizations in the territories.
Iran does not recognize the state of Israel, which Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has repeatedly called a "cancerous tumor" that should be wiped off the face of the earth – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
