A rchive Date
[ 25-12-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Israel ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2002/12/24/8336-ap.html
Sharon: Iraq transferring weapons to Syria
Tue, December 24, 2002
JERUSALEM (AP) - Iraq may be transferring chemical and biological weapons to Syria, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in a TV interview on Tuesday. Sharon said that Israel has information that "weapons he (Saddam Hussein) wanted to hide, chemical weapons, biological weapons, were indeed transferred to Syria."
He said that the information has not been fully verified. "We have some information to that effect. We are now working to confirm the information," he told Israel TV's Channel 2. Sharon did not indicate where the information came from or what form it took.
The interview, broadcast on a current affairs program, was heavily edited.
Sharon said he knew approximately when a U.S. attack on Iraq would take place. He would not say when, but noted it would begin in western Iraq, the part closest to Israel, where Saddam Hussein launched Scud missiles at Israel during the 1991 war.
The Israeli leader also said that Israeli forces had captured a band of Palestinians who were trained in Iraq and planned to try to shoot down planes at Israel's international airport outside Tel Aviv.
"They planned to use Strela missiles," he said, referring to shoulder-mounted anti-aircraft missiles.
In a terror attack in Mombasa, Kenya on Nov. 28, terrorists fired Strela missiles at an Israeli airliner as it took off, but missed. Al-Qaida took responsibility for that attack.
Sharon charged that the Palestinian Authority, headed by Yasser Arafat, co-ordinates activities with Iraq. He said a senior official in Arafat's Fatah movement, Zakaria al-Agha, recently visited Iraq and consulted with senior officials. Al-Agha was not available for immediate comment.
Israel has been preparing for the possibility of an Iraqi attack in response to a U.S.-led assault against Iraq. During the 1991 Gulf war, Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel, causing considerable damage but few casualties.
Israel has vaccinated emergency and rescue workers against smallpox, concerned that Iraq might use the disease in a biological attack. Almost every day, the military's Home Front Command carries out widely-publicized drills to practise dealing with missile attacks of various kinds.
During the interview, Sharon repeated Israel's policy, saying that if attacked, "Israel will know how to defend itself," but he did not threaten automatic retaliation.
In 1991, under stiff U.S. pressure, Israel did not hit back for the Iraqi missile strikes.
Sharon repeated that he is in favour of a Palestinian state under strict conditions, and felt he could persuade skeptics in his own party about the policy.
He said a "totally disarmed Palestinian state in non-final borders in a reduced amount of territory is part" of a U.S.-sponsored plan for Middle East peace, but "not a central part."
He said that as a condition for progress toward such a state, "Arafat must be removed from all leadership positions."
Palestinians demand a state in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip with a capital in the Arab section of Jerusalem and reject Israeli and U.S. efforts to sideline Arafat. Because no leading Palestinians would accept Sharon's state, his critics charge that he is not sincere about the offer, making it as a political ploy to woo Israel's centrist voters in Jan. 28 elections
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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