Lebanon's top Shiite Muslim cleric expressed fears Sunday that a US-sponsored peace conference in the late autumn would serve instead as a cover for renewed aggression by the United States and Israel. Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah also charged that the United States had given Israel the green light to destroy Hamas-controlled Gaza by supporting its decision last week to designate the strip a "hostile territory." "We fear that the American peace conference that Bush has called for in the fall would be a cover for a new American-Israeli aggression in the region and would constitute the basis for another military adventure," Fadlallah said in an announcement.
Fadlallah, the top religious authority for Lebanon's 1.2 million Shiites, warned Arab countries against "directly or indirectly joining this game."