Iran's Larijani slams Arab, European proposals on Gaza (Roundup)

Jan 8, 2009, 21:17 GMT

Beirut - A prominent Iranian politician on Thursday severely criticized proposals by Middle Eastern and European nations to end the conflict in the Gaza Strip, describing them as 'honey injected with poison.'

'These proposals do not protect the rights of the Palestinian people,' Ali Larijani, speaker of the Iranian parliament, said after talks with his Lebanese counterpart Nabih Berri.

Larijani arrived in Beirut as part of a delegation of the Asian Parliamentary Troika, which included speaker of the Syrian People's Assembly Mahmoud Al-Abrach and Indonesian Speaker Agung Laksono.

'As a troika, we are looking for reasonable solutions to end the conflict in Gaza,' he said.

Egypt is trying to broker a deal between Israel and Hamas to implement a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds have died and thousands have been injured since the Israeli offensive against Hamas began on December 27.

The troika was also to hold talks with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Fouad Seniora on Friday.

The men's visit came a few hours after at least three Katyusha rockets were fired from southern Lebanon into northern Israel.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the rocket firing, but suspicion fell on Palestinian hardline groups.

The militant group Hezbollah, which in the past carried out rocket attacks into Israel, denied any involvement. Israel responded with mortar fire on the suspected launch sites. There were no reports of casualties.