London Al-Sharq al-Awsat in Arabic 1 Oct 98 p 5

 Fadlallah Says "Iran Is Capable of Shelling Israel With Advanced Weapons From Lebanon If
                                 Attacked"

Beirut, Al-Sharq al-Awsat -- Lebanese Shiite scholar Shaykh Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah
[spiritual leader of Lebanese Hizballah] has said that Iran "is capable of shelling Israel with
advanced weapons if shelled by Israel by any means."

In his Koran interpretation lesson Fadlallah downplayed the possibility of an Israeli strike on
Iran, saying that the Israeli threat is "a show designed for the media" and has no chance of
being implemented, at least at present or in the foreseeable future. This is for a simple reason
Israel does not have the freedom to move freely in the world, even with its strategic alliance
with the United States. Because military moves anywhere in the world must serve the political
line and political conditions. We know that the United States, Europe, and other world states
do not have the political circumstances or conditions to prompt a military strike on Iran by
Israel.

He added The world orientation in the political move toward Iran proceeds from the premise
of establishing "normal relations" with it, especially since Tehran announced that it is
planning to improve its relations with all world states. As for its position toward Israel, it is a
fixed, Islamic position based on the refusal to recognize the legitimacy of injustice and
usurpation.

Fadlallah added that, even with the United States, at some point Iran will be able to establish
relations if it accepts Iranian terms. So there are no military conditions against Iran at the
international level. Furthermore, this kind of military threat is intolerable in the world in
general, except when there is political chaos, as happened when Israel bombed the Iraqi
nuclear reactor. There is no chaos at the present stage. We noted that no state expressed its
anger at India or Pakistan when they manufactured nuclear bombs.

Fadlallah went on to say that, even if we assume that Israel does shell Iran by some means,
"Iran is capable of shelling Israel. In fact it is capable of shelling Israel with advanced
weapons from Lebanon, because if it came to aggression against Iran the political situation
would turn prohibited acts into permissible acts, and Israel is aware of that." On his view of
the Iranian position, which stressed that Iran would respond powerfully if Israel attacked
Syria, Fadlallah said that "the relationship between Iran and Syria is a strategic relationship,
and Iran regards any aggression against Syria by Israel as aggression against itself. Some
people criticized us when we made statements in the past to the effect that Iran could fight
alongside Syria against Israel if a war broke out, but Iran has now announced this by itself. I
believe that this issue is a basic principle in the Islamic strategy in Iran."