Defense Minister Shimon Peres said last night that Syria was violating the disengagement agreement and that Soviet and East European weapons were being funneled by Syria and Iraq to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. He said members of the extremist terrorist group were attending courses in the Soviet Union on the use of various weapons, guerrilla warfare and military command.
Peres said in reply to questions in the Knesset that the Syrians were slipping 160 mm. heavy mortars into the limited forces zone on the Golan Heights in violation of the terms of the disengagement agreement. He also accused the Syrians of establishing tanks in permanent positions in the zone and introducing more than the permitted number of tanks.
The Defense Minister said that while Syrian civilians have in fact returned to villages in the territory that Israel captured in the Yom Kippur War and evacuated under the disengagement agreement, there has been no significant return of civilians to Kuneitra. The Golan Heights town was captured by Israel in 1967 and evacuated this year on the understanding that it would be re-populated by civilians.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
