Iran Shipping Arms to Hezbollah, U.S. Alleges

As fighting flared between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas, Iran last weekend flew a 747 cargo plane of arms and other goods to Syria, destined for its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

Although the specific contents of the crates unloaded at Damascus’ international airport are unknown, U.S. intelligence believes that at least some included Katyusha rockets, which Hezbollah fighters fire into Israel’s northern Galilee region.

Over the past week, at least 49 Israelis have been injured by Katyusha rockets fired from Hezbollah, or Party of God, strongholds in southern Lebanon.

The weapons are effective because they can be attached to timers that fire long after Hezbollah fighters have fled the launching area.

Israelis have complained to U.S. officials that destroying the Katyushas, or the forces that fire them, is “like eating soup with a fork,” a Pentagon official said.

Although the weapon was originally Russian-made, Iran now has the capability to manufacture it.

Tehran’s efficient and growing arms industry produces most of the small arms, rockets and ammunition that Iran uses, as well as what it supplies to its allies.

The Islamic republic has long supplied Hezbollah fighters with arms, including Katyushas. But the timing of the latest shipment appears designed to improve the Islamic militants’ capacity to harass northern Israel and counter the Israeli raids.

“This certainly looks like additional Iranian support for their allies at a moment of need,” a U.S. official said Wednesday.

The Pentagon official noted that, in the past, Tehran had averaged four major air shipments per year but that the arms transfers had slowed until the latest shipment.

The arms shipments also underscore Iran’s effort to sabotage the Middle East peace process, U.S. officials charge.

This effort was the focus of a visit by Iranian First Vice President Hassan Habibi to Damascus in late February for talks with so-called rejectionist groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.

The talks, conducted at Iran’s embassy in the Syrian capital, focused on undermining the U.S.-orchestrated peace process among Israel, Syria and Lebanon, which is on hold until after the Israeli elections next month.

Tehran reportedly also offered financial incentives for new moves to block progress and encourage further confrontation.

“Iran is the financier, armorer, trainer, safe haven and inspiration for the Hezbollah in Lebanon and provides strong support to a broad range of other terrorist groups. Iran spends well over $100 million annually on such support,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Bruce O. Riedel told the House International Relations Committee last year.

The new shipment, however, may have included some humanitarian goods for Hezbollah’s social services network, which Iran also supports with material aid, U.S. officials noted.

The arms transfer has triggered further concern within the Clinton administration about Syria’s intentions.

“This [shipment] raises fundamental questions about Syria’s commitment to peace,” the Pentagon official said. “To allow Hezbollah to be resupplied is a very serious action, not conducive to ending the conflict.”

Over the past four months, Tehran has also flown dozens--possibly more than 100--planeloads of arms and military supplies to Afghanistan, U.S. and Afghan sources said this week.

Until 1995, Tehran also dispatched arms and hundreds of Revolutionary Guards to help the Muslim-led government in Bosnia-Herzegovina during its war with Bosnian Serb nationalists. Its activities have made Iran into one of the most active sources of arms in the developing world, U.S. officials said.