BY BRIAN TAYLOR
After being exposed for direct involvement in the failed assassination attempt on Hamas leader Khaled Meshal, the Israeli regime was compelled to make concessions to Palestinian liberation fighters. On October 6 Tel Aviv released Ahmed Yassin, the central leader of Hamas, after eight years in prison, as well as 20 other Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

On September 25 two Israeli government agents with Canadian passports attacked Meshal from behind in Amman, Jordan, and injected him with a potentially fatal poison. Surviving the agent plot, Meshal called the action Israeli "state terrorism." The two cops were taken into custody by the Jordan government.

King Hussein of Jordan, pressured by opposition forces to not let the violation of Jordanian sovereignty by Tel Aviv go unanswered, demanded that the Israeli government release Yassin and other political prisoners. In return the two agents were freed.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu unapologetically defended the actions of Tel Aviv's political police as "justified" and vowed to continue its assault on anti-Zionist rebels.

The release of Yassin and the other prisoners was widely celebrated by Palestinians. More than 10,000 people, many of them young, lined Yarmuk Stadium in Gaza October 6 in a welcome home ceremony for the Yassin. Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat, who met with Yassin after his release in Jordan, remained in the West Bank during the ceremonies.

The assassination attempt against Meshal has brought Netanyahu criticism from many quarters. The Canadian government temporarily withdrew its ambassador to Israel in protest against what it said was the use of forged Canadian passports. Zeev Schiff, a prominent columnist in the Israeli daily Haaretz, said the cop bungling "must go down as one of the worst operational failures in the history of Israel's intelligence service."

U.S. officials offered mild criticism over the incident. During a visit of Israeli president Ezer Weizman in Washington October 7, U.S. president William Clinton stated, "I believe that it's important to fight terrorism, but I think it's important to consider in the fight the consequences on all of your allies."

Washington deploys warship to Gulf
Meanwhile, U.S. defense secretary William Cohen, ordered the warship U.S.S. Nimitz to speed towards the Arab-Persian Gulf October 3 after warning the governments of Iran and Iraq not to violate the U.S.-enforced "no-fly zone" in southern Iraq.

On September 29 an unnamed Iraqi official alleged that "eight Iranian warplanes raided targets inside our territory in Daiya and Kut provinces." The Iranian government said that they were responding to attacks by the group Mujahdeen Khalq.

"We are trying to send the signal to all parties that we will enforce the no-fly zone," said a U.S. national security council official, threatening to retaliate against any flights by Iranian or Iraqi planes in the area. The "no-fly zone" is a section below the 32 parallel in southern Iraq carved out by Washington, Paris, and London after their 1991 assault on Iraq to supposedly protect Shiite Muslims from Iraqi government attack. The Clinton administration has since pushed the zone deeper into Iraqi territory at the 33rd parallel.

The U.S.S. Nimitz - an aircraft carrier with a crew of 5,000 - is hauling nearly 80 aircraft and more than 4.6 million pounds of air-launched missiles and bombs. It is accompanied by six other ships, including two cruisers and an attack submarine.

U.S.-French conflict over Iran oil deal
In other developments in the region, the French energy company Total SA, despite U.S. sanctions on Tehran, is carrying through a $2 billion investment with the National Iranian Oil Co. to develop part of the South Pars gas field near the border with Qatar. The U.S. Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, passed in 1996, calls on the Clinton administration to impose sanctions on companies in other countries doing business with energy industries in Iran or Libya exceeding $20 million.

Gazprom, a Russian oil company, has joined with Total SA, Petronas from Malaysia, and Aquitaine, another French company, in the venture. Russian president Boris Yeltsin, warning Washington not to impose sanctions, said, "Interference from any other state is not to be tolerated."

The European Union (EU) and Paris also support Total's venture. EU chairman Leon Brittan said the U.S. government's attempts to deny trade rights for EU countries "risks setting in motion a chain of events which could seriously damage" broader trade relations between capitalists of the two hemispheres.

Washington backed away from the hardened stance against the investment, proposing a Europe-wide waiver if EU governments agree to six international protocols "combating terrorism." At the same time an anonymous senior U.S. official said that a thorough investigation was underway to see if "any sanctionable activity is taking place."  
 
 
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