BEIRUT, July 23 (AFP) - The Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah on Friday angrily rejected the suggestion of links with Al-Qaeda contained in the US September 11 Commission report.
"On several occasions in the past, Hezbollah has already assured that the American allegations on the existence of relations between the party and Al-Qaeda were non-existent, very removed from the truth and lacking credibility," the party said in a statement.
"What was published in the commission's report does not prove these allegations," it said.
The commission report, made public Thursday in Washington, links Tehran with Al-Qaeda through Hezbollah, which it claimed "gave advice and training" to the Sunni extremist group in Sudan.
But it said: "We found no evidence that Iran or Hezbollah was aware of the planning for what later became the 9/11 attack" by 19 men.
Hezbollah's communique said: "The determination to bring Hezbollah into this affair proves the hostility of the American intentions towards Islamist movements, starting with Hezbollah."
It accused "US-Zionist cooperation" of seeking to "destroy the (Muslim) nation ... under the pretext of fighting what they call terorism, without providing the slightest proof of the veracity of their hostile allegations."
Israeli forces withdrew from southern Lebanon in May 2000 after 22 years following a guerrilla campaign by Hezbollah, which is backed by Beirut, Damascus and Tehran.
Washington considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization and has frozen its assets in the United States.