Islamic outrage

Press, 9 June 1982, Page 8

Islamic outrage

NZPA-Reuter London Islamic countries yesterday expressed outrage over Israel’s military drive into Lebanon while Britain said the Jewish State could not gain its security indefinitely by occupying other people’s lands. One call for retaliation came from Iran. Hojatoleslam Hashemi Rafsanjani, speaker of the Majlis (Parliament), urged Islamic countries to use their military and economic strength, including the oil weapon, to counter the Israeli operation.

He said Iran would defend Lebanese territo’ry in the same way that it defended its lands occupied by Iraqi .forces. Iran was sending a military envoy to Damascus for talks with Syrian and Palestinian officials on possible support from Teheran, he said.

A British Deputy Foreign Minister, Douglas'Hurd said in London he accepted Israel's claim that it entered Lebanon to extend the buffer zone against Palestinian attacks and not to acquire new territory. “But it won’t work that way,” he said. “You won’t solve this problem simply by punitive expeditions against the Palestinians ... I don't think you can win Israel’s security indefinitely by occupying other people's lands. That simply produces terrorism which calls itself resistance movements,” he added. In Moscow, the official Tass news agency said the Soviet Union demanded an end to the operation which "may cost Israel and its people dearly."