Peter Hirschberg
in Jerusalem
With domestic political pressure increasing on Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon to respond to overtures by Damascus to resume peace talks, Israeli security sources said yesterday that Syrian planes that flew relief aid to Iran after the earthquake in Bam had returned laden with weapons for Hizbullah.
According to the sources, missiles and weapons that were flown back from Iran were then loaded onto trucks by the Syrians, driven into Lebanon and delivered to Hizbullah. The US, the sources said, was aware of the alleged weapons airlift.
Iran yesterday dismissed the allegations as a "baseless lie." A spokesman accused Israel of "fabricating such news" because of the "world's solidarity with the Iranian nation" in the wake of the earthquake.
If the allegations are true, they would help Mr Sharon fob off the advances of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has called on Israel to resume negotiations. The Israeli leader doubts Mr Assad's intentions, believing his statements are aimed at reducing US pressure on Damascus.
Mr Sharon is also opposed to ceding the strategic Golan Heights, which were captured by Israel in 1967 and overlook the north of the country. The daily Maariv newspaper yesterday quoted the prime minister as saying privately that the Israeli public "would not tolerate" giving back the Golan.
An opinion poll published in Maariv showed 56 per cent of Israelis opposed to relinquishing the Golan as part of a peace treaty with Syria, and only 36 per cent in favour.
But some ministers, as well as senior army officers, have been counselling Mr Sharon to examine Mr Assad's offer, saying it could be in Israel's interest to deal with a Syrian leader weakened by the US invasion of Iraq.
Talking to the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper, the UN envoy to the Middle East, Mr Terje Roed Larsen, said that his own conversations with Mr Assad had left him with the impression that his overtures were sincere.
Meanwhile, in an apparent softening of his position, the leader of the radical Hamas group, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, said on Thursday that the movement would agree to a "temporary peace" if Israel agreed to the creation of a Palestinian state "on the basis of the 1967 borders," the removal of all settlements and the right of return for Palestinian refugees.