Israel claims Iran impedes peace process

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- The Israeli ambassador to the United States accused Iran of actively supporting anti-Israeli terrorists and impeding the peace process, USA Today reported.

Ambassador Daniel Ayalon said Iranian support for an armed wing of the dominant Palestinian faction, Fatah, represents "the most significant strategic threat to any progress and peaceful dialogue."

According to Ayalon, Iran is using Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shiite Muslim terrorist group Iran created in the early 1980s, to try to take over Tanzim, Fatah's youth movement, and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

Iranian ambassador to the United Nations Mohammed Javad Zarif dismissed the allegation as "propaganda" provoked by Israel's opposition to a nuclear accord Britain, France, Germany and Iran finalized Monday.

However, Martin Indyk, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel who heads the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Washington think tank Brookings Institution, agrees with Ayalon.

"The Iranians have played an extraordinarily negative role throughout" the 4-year-old Palestinian uprising, Indyk said.