Iran Paid To Stop Captive’s Release, Israeli Tells U.N.

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The New York Sun

UNITED NATIONS — Iran has paid Hamas $50 million to prevent a deal to release a kidnapped Israeli soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit, Israel’s ambassador said here yesterday.

Dan Gillerman did not disclose his sources, but told The New York Sun that based on “reliable” sources the Israeli government believes Tehran has paid the money to the Damascus-based Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal, to stop a deal to release Mr. Shalit.

Addressing the Security Council during a periodic discussion on the Middle East yesterday, Mr. Gillerman referred to a report yesterday in Israel’s Yediot Ahronot, saying Tehran paid $50 million to Mr. Meshaal, “to sabotage the negotiations on the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit and prevent his release.”

The kidnapping of Mr. Shalit in Gaza on June 25 started a major round of confrontation between Israelis and Hamas, followed later by the July kidnapping in Lebanon of two Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwaser and Eldad Regev, which ignited the war in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli press reported this week that negotiations under Egyptian mediators to release Mr. Shalit, 20, in exchange for several Palestinian Arabs who have been convicted and jailed in Israel, have “collapsed.”

Iranian U.N. envoy Mansour Sadeghi said he “rejected” the “baseless and absurd” allegations made by Mr. Gillerman, which he said were meant to deflect Israel’s “crimes” in the region.

Meanwhile, the commander of the U.N. force charged with preserving the lull in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, Major General Alain Pelligrini, said yesterday that his troops “could” use force to prevent Israel’s air force from patrolling over Lebanon.

At the same time, General Pelligrini, who is French, said no Hezbollah weapons have been spotted in southern Lebanon, where the Lebanese army has deployed in the aftermath of this summer’s war. He added, however, that his troops were not responsible for preventing weapons deliveries to Hezbollah through the Syrian border.

General Pelligrini’s railing against Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace yesterday came after Israel’s defense minister, Amir Peretz, reportedly told the Knesset’s defense and foreign affairs committee on Monday that French members of the U.N. force in southern Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, have threatened to use anti-aircraft missiles to stop Israeli “violations” of Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the fighting there this summer.

Mr. Peretz vowed to continue the flights over Lebanon as long as the rearming of Hezbollah, which he said has intensified recently, does not stop. Israeli diplomats told the Sun yesterday that they planned to transfer evidence of Hezbollah’s rearming by Iran and Syria to the United Nations.

In a periodic report to the council on implementation of its resolutions on Lebanon, Secretary-General Annan yesterday called for the process of disarming all militias in Lebanon “to be settled as early as possible.”

The most recent council resolution, 1701, provided UNIFIL with a boost of thousands of European troops. Despite several resolutions calling for the disarming of Hezbollah and militias in Palestinian Arab camps, however, the U.N.’s rules of engagement call on UNIFIL to refrain from forcefully searching and seizing illegal arms, leaving the task to Lebanese troops who act as part of a political process.

On Sunday, El Pais reported from the southern Lebanese town of Taibe that Spanish UNIFIL troops have encountered “armed members of Hezbollah who were uniformed” near the town of Marjayoun.The Spanish troops advised the Lebanese army of the encounter, but after checking it the next day the army dismissed the Spanish account.

UNIFIL spokesmen later denied the account in the Spanish newspaper’s report, as well as similar reports in the Israeli press.

“We have not detected, spotted, any person with illegal weapons” in the area between the Litani River and the Lebanese-Israeli border, where the only weapons permitted under resolution 1701 are those carried by the Lebanese army or UNIFIL, General Pelligrini said yesterday during a Turtle Bay press conference.

He said, however, that Israel’s air force has repeatedly violated the resolution by flying over Lebanese airspace. For now, he emphasized, UNIFIL can only stop such violations through “dialogue and diplomatic ways.” If those should not suffice, he added, “maybe it could be considered other ways.”

Since last year, when U.N. French troops faced helicopter attacks in the Ivory Coast, all French contingencies deployed under the U.N flag are supplied with anti-aircraft missiles for selfdefense, General Pelligrini noted.

Asked by the Sun whether such missiles could be used to halt Israeli flights over Lebanese air space, he said,”it could be, it could be.” Such measures “depend on new rules of engagement drafted and decided” at Turtle Bay, he added.

A French official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the anti-aircraft missiles in Lebanon are not capable of intercepting jets, which carry the majority of Israeli flight missions over the country. At best, the official said, they could down a helicopter.

Mr. Gillerman yesterday contacted the U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping, Jean Marie Guéhenno, and was told that while there was “great concern” at the United Nations about Israel’s air “violations,” those would be dealt with in “diplomatic and political channels,” rather than military ones, a Turtle Bay official told the Sun.


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