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Iranian papers blast Israel for Lebanon attacks

NICOSIA: Iranian newspapers on Saturday blasted Israel for attacking Lebanon and said Arab countries should realise that the only way to achieve Arab rights was to support the struggle of the Palestinian and Lebanese Moslems.

"The most important lesson Arab countries have to learn from recent atrocities committed by the Zionist (Israeli) regime against the civilian population of Lebanon is that no peace accord can reign in the Zionist regime," the English-language Tehran Times said.

"It is time for the Arab countries who have reached a detente with the Zionist regime to come to their senses and realise that the only way to restore the rights of Palestinian Moslems is through supporting the struggle of Palestinian and Lebanese Moslems," it added.

Iran, which Hizbollah officials say has provided the group with financial and political support, strongly opposes the Arab-Israeli peace process as a sellout of Palestinian rights.

Israel's three-day assault on targets in Lebanon, including the first raid on Beirut since 1982, were in retaliation for Hizbollah rocket attacks against northern Israel.

In another commentary, Iran News said: "The bloody exchange of fires is not the first and it won't be the last. This will go on as long as the Zionist occupation of south Lebanon continues and jeopardises peace in the entire region."

"The United Nations should immediately call an extraordinary meeting of the Security Council to discuss the South Lebanese eye-opener situation, if it wants to act as an honest broker of peace," it added.

Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, in a sermon broadcast on Tehran radio on Friday, said Israel's attacks on Lebanon were a sign of weakness.

"Israel, with all its resources, is unable to cope with a few strugglers...fighting a holy war to push Israel out of their land...When it receives a blow there, it attacks a city, Beirut, Baalbek, a hospital with helicopters, warships, planes."

"This is the height of cowardice, the ultimate in weakness," Rafsanjani said.-Reuter