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Iran - Next on the Israeli/U.S. List?
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"The [Jerusalem] terror attack was perpetrated by a
four-member squad trained in Iran, which
reached Israel via Turkey."
GETTING READY TO TAKE ON IRAN?
JERUSALEM BOMBING LINKED TO IRAN?
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MER - Washington - 8/15/97:
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The Israelis are very worried about Iran. And the Israelis are the major force in the U.S. pushing Washington to confront Iran. As was the case with Iraq just a few years ago, partly it is a matter of what "excuse" to use and how to mold public opinion to support military action.
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Yesterday, an Israeli-connected news agency reported on a Jordanian newspaper story that for the first time linked the recent Jerusalem market bombing to Iran. That report follows below.
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One important caveat: as for "disinformation" mentioned in the story, the greatest likelihood is that the Israelis are the ones involved in disinformation as they continue to contemplate attacking Iran themselves while attempting to push Washington into a confrontation with Tehran.
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The Israeli goal, shared by many in the U.S., is very simple: to destroy Iran's military power and set back its nuclear and missile programs by a decade -- as was the case with Israel's attack against the Iraqi Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981.
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So just what are the Israelis so worried about? They are worried that so far the Iranians have not been infiltrated and co-opted -- as has been successfully done with most of the Arab "client-regimes", most especially the Jordanians, the Saudis, and the Egyptians. They are worried that the Iranians remain a source of inspiration, as well as funds and arms, for other nationalist and Islamic oriented forces in the region. They are worried that the Iranians continue to supply weapons to the Hizballah and others to counter the U.S. and Israeli military dominance in the region. They are worried about the talk of, and small steps toward, a joint Syrian, Iranian, Iraqi alliance against Israel; especially troubling should there be revolution in any of the major countries Israel now relies on -- Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, as well as Jordan. And at the top of the list they are worried that within the next few years Iran will develop nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver them.
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It should be remembered that last year the well-respected Janes Military Review outlined that among the four most likely scenarios for a new Middle East war is a surprise Israeli strike (coordinated with the U.S. of course) against the Iran. It should be noted, in closing, that there are some analysts who suggest neither the Israelis nor the Americans are really ready for a major confrontation with Iran; and in fact that there is hope to avoid it fearing its possible repercussions throughout the Muslim world.
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Even so, these analysts suggest, Washington and Tel Aviv hold open the possibility of such a confrontation as a way of "deterring" the Iranians from helping those in the region who are attaching the American presence in the Gulf and the on-going Israeli occupation of the Palestinians.
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[The following from an Israeli-oriented news service - 8/14/97]
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JORDANIAN PAPER: BOMBERS TRAINED IN IRAN
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The Mahaneh Yehuda terror attack was perpetrated by a four-member squad trained in Iran, which reached Israel via Turkey. This is reported by the Jordanian paper "Shihan".
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The perpetrators, according to Shihan, were recruited by Ahmed Jubril and former Hizbullah Secretary-General Subhi Tufeili, and sent into action at the special request of Ali Fallahian-Khuzestan, Iran's Minister of Intelligence & Security.
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The newspaper also alleges that at the beginning of 1997, the two men visited Teheran at Fellahian's request. At their meeting with the Iranian minister, they were asked to set up suicide operations inside Israel. Jubril then assigned a senior military officer to recruit four young men from the Ein Hilweh camp. He escorted the four to Teheran in February 1997. They were received by OC Intelligence of the Iranian revolutionary guards in Lebanon, Muhsin Aramin, and sent to the Wakil Abad camp near Mashhad.
The sources stated that Arab and foreign detachments had trained at the Wakil Abad camp under North Korean experts.
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The chosen squad spent about six months at the camp, undergoing all types of training required for the dangerous operations it would mount. They also underwent an intensive Hebrew-language course.
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After training, they were sent back to Lebanon, to the Sheikh Abdallah camp at Baalbek. One of Jubril's senior officers was also there. During their six weeks at this camp, their visit to Turkey was arranged.
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The four member squad left for Istanbul together with the Hizbullah senior officer and Jubril's senior officer. They reached Istanbul via Tripoli.
Equipped with Turkish passports, the squad signed up for a tour under the aegis of a Turkey-Israel tourism deal. They entered Haifa port from the sea, meeting there with Jubril's senior officer, who is fluent in Hebrew. He had arrived there previously, equipped with a western passport issued in the name of a Jewish citizen, and held an Israel identity card issued in Jerusalem.
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The squad allegedly acquired the explosives detonated in the Jerusalem market for a large sum of money paid to an international observer stationed in the south Lebanese border zone.
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Having completed preparations for the suicide bombings, Jubril's senior officer left Israel the same way he entered. Only two members of the squad were killed in the bombing.
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The newspaper also gives another "version", whereby radical Israeli elements knew of the plans hatched by Iran and by Jubril and Tufeili to stage suicide bombings in Israel's heartland, but ignored them so as to thwart the peace process.
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Israeli sources said it was not improbable that the Jordanian newspaper reports formed part of a disinformation campaign concerning the perpetrators and those responsible for the Machane Yehuda crime.

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