Rafsanjani denies Iran role in Hamas attacks

PRESIDENT Hashemi Rafsanjani yesterday denied any Iranian role in the recent spate of bombings carried out by members of the Palestinian Hamas against Israeli targets in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

He said that "terrorist activities should not be accepted", while insisting that the "Palestinian people are a victim of oppression" and entitled to resist Israeli occupation.

His statement, just 48 hours before the opening of the anti terrorism summit in Egypt, was meant to reverse the political damage done last week by an unauthorised" statement supporting the bombings issued by an official source.

Regional analysts make the point that Hamas, a Sunni rather than a Shia movement, has been financed by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, as well as by private donations from those countries and the West. And although there is no suggestion that Tehran is involved in the planning or implementation of Hamas violence in the West Bank or Gaza, undoubtedly the clerical regime lends moral support to the 10 group "rejection front" based in Damascus, of which Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad are members.

Last week two high ranking Iranian officials met "rejection front" leaders in the Syrian capital.

Mr Rafsanjani said the Lebanese Shia Hizbullah movement, founded under Iranian auspices in 1982, had the right to resist the Israeli occupation of the 9-15 kilometre wide southern Lebanese border strip held by the Israeli army since 1985.

And yesterday Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hizbullah, admitted for the first time that his movement received material support from Tehran.

But since Hizbullah now confines its activities to attacking Israeli forces within the occupation zone and, occasionally, lobbing rockets into northern Israel in retaliation for Israeli assaults on south Lebanese villages the movement has, according to the Economist, apparently shed its "terrorist" image.

"Iran itself has been a victim of terrorism," Mr Rafsanjani remarked and welcomed the coming visit to Tehran, Damascus and Tripoli of an EU delegation, so that he might put his case against US attempts to isolate Tehran.

In the first partial results from Friday's parliamentary election in Iran, released yesterday, the conservative anti Rafsanjani faction led by the outgoing Speaker, Hajatolislam Ali Akbar NateqNouri, had secured the highest number of votes for 23 of the 30 seats allocated to Tehran in the 270 member parliament, the majlis.

If this trend continues, the conservatives are expected to win the presidency in the 1997 poll.