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The
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BEIRUT,
November 10 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Lebanese President
Emile Lahoud Saturday, November 9, dismissed reports of a meeting in
South America between Al-Qaeda and the Lebanese resistance movement
Hezbollah as Israeli-sponsored propaganda.
“The
media campaign being conducted by Israeli circles seeks to exploit the
September 11, 2001 attacks to blacken the name of the Lebanese
resistance,” Lahoud said in a statement, Agence France-Presse (AFP)
reported.
“Everyone
knows that the Lebanese resistance has always limited its attacks to
the Israeli enemy and has no links with Al-Qaeda as claimed by CNN.”
The
U.S.-based news channel quoted unidentified intelligence sources
Thursday as saying that representatives of Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and
other Islamic groups had met in the Paraguayan city of Cuidad del
Este.
CNN
said that two weeks ago, Argentina’s security agencies issued a
strong terrorist warning and quoted Miguel Toma, who runs SIDE, the
Argentinean intelligence saying that they had intelligence pointing to
increased terrorist activity.
“It
is not unrealistic that there could be some action to prevent or to
react to an attack on Iraq. So we need to react because of the global
conflict,” said Toma.
CNN
also said that “other indications of the threat came from
intelligence sources in the Middle East, who told CNN of a new
terrorist effort aimed at U.S. and Israeli interests and coordinated
by a man named Imad Mugniyeh.”
According
to the network, its sources say Mugniyeh - working from his bases in
Iran and Hezbollah-controlled areas of Lebanon - is directing the
activities of terrorists in South America, planning to hit U.S. and
Israeli targets if the United States attacks Iraq, or if Israel is
drawn into the conflict.
CNN
claims that Mugniyeh is suspected of being the mastermind in a long
list of attacks against U.S. and Israeli targets over the past 20
years - including the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in
Beirut, Lebanon, and the 1992 car bombing of the Israeli Embassy in
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Brazilian
and Paraguayan authorities have strongly denied that any meeting took
place, reported AFP.
Paraguay’s
Foreign Minister Jose Moreno said Saturday that authorities from
Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina will meet December 16 on security
issues in their triple border area.
Argentina
already has declared an alert in the tri-border area of Argentina,
Brazil and Paraguay, a government official told AFP Friday, November
8, on condition of anonymity, following reports top terrorist
organizations met recently in the area.
“I
have no idea what Toma is talking about,” Paraguayan Ambassador to
the United States Leila Rachid told AFP.
In
an interview with the Brazilian newspaper Folha Thursday, Toma ruled
out the possibility that the meeting took place in Brazil.
Hezbollah
is represented in the Lebanese parliament and is widely credited in
Lebanon with ending Israel’s 22-year occupation of south Lebanon in
2000. 
