Iran is using Islamic organizations in Israel as a cover to run a network of Israeli Arab spies in the Jewish state, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said last night. He did not elaborate further.
“Iran is undoubtedly a very dangerous country that operates among Israeli Arabs through the Islamic Movement,” Sharon told a group of soldiers in Jerusalem yesterday. “Although most Israeli Arabs want to live a quiet life, there is a minority that are mostly run through Iran.”
Israel has previously accused Tehran of trying to wield influence among the 1.2 million strong Arab Israeli community.
In May 2003, police launched a large-scale raid in northern Israel, detaining 14 members of the Islamic Movement over ties to the radical Palestinian Hamas movement. Sharon’s office accused the Islamic Movement at the time of running Iranian intelligence agents.
In June this year, five Movement members, including Sheikh Raed Salah, the political leader of the group’s radical wing, were indicted for transferring funds to Hamas, with four of them also charged with having “contacts with foreign agents”.
Sharon’s accusations come amid heightened tensions between Israel and Iran, with Sharon accusing Tehran of illegally maintaining a nuclear development program aimed at producing nuclear weapons.
Israel has also accused Iran of helping fund Palestinian militant groups.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior Israeli official said Iran was “continuing its efforts” to enlist Israeli Arabs in its cause.
The Islamic Movement, immediately rejected the claims, with the Movement northern branch’s deputy leader, Sheikh Kamel Khatib, saying they constitute a declaration of war against “both the movement and the entire Arab sector.”
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John Stossel