posted July 14, 2006 03:43 PM              

BY MATTHEW KALMAN
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS

JERUSALEM - Israeli intelligence believes the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council gave Hezbollah the green light for the raid and the massive rocket barrage on Israel during a stopover in Damascus on Wednesday morning - hours before the attacks began.
The Iranian official, Ali Larijani, stopped briefly in Syria after talks with European leaders in Brussels on Tuesday which failed to break the deadlock over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Israel also fears that because of Hezbollah's close ties to Iran, the two captured Israeli soldiers may be smuggled to Iran.

Gideon Meir, Israeli Foreign Ministry deputy director general, said Israel had "specific information that Hezbollah is planning to transfer the kidnapped soldiers to Iran."

Further evidence of Iran's support for Hezbollah came as Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV station broadcast pictures of the new Iranian-supplied Thunder-1 rocket, which it said was used in yesterday's rocket barrage. The new missile has a longer range and carries 200 pounds of explosives.

Israel said it bombed Beirut's airport yesterday to prevent Iran from flying in fresh ammo for Hezbollah by way of Syria.

Iran has extended its influence to Palestinian groups operating inside Israel, including Hamas, which also captured an Israeli soldier last week.

The Kuwaiti news agency KUNA reported that during Larijani's Damascus pit stop, he met with Hamas' leader Khaled Meshaal as well as members of the Palestinian terror group Islamic Jihad.

The White House blamed Iran for Hezbollah's attacks, along with Syria, because of their financial and materiel support.

"I think that it's really time for everybody to acknowledge that these two states do have some measure of control over Hezbollah," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

But the administration stopped short of accusing Iran of directing the attacks.

"Nobody knows that, and we're not saying that," said a U.S. official monitoring action on the ground.

With Kenneth R. Bazinet in Washington