Tehran – Iran on Wednesday offered to help finance a Palestinian Authority run by the Hamas militant group, state radio said in a report prompting Israel to warn that it would do all it legally could to stop the Palestinians from receiving the money.
The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, announced the offer after a meeting with Khaled Mashaal, the political leader of Hamas, the report said.
Larijani said the decision was made after the U.S. said it would not provide aid to an authority governed by Hamas until the group renounces violence, recognizes Israel and agrees to abide by existing agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.
“The United States proved that it would not support democracy after it cut its aid to the Palestinian government after Hamas won the elections. We will certainly help the Palestinians,” Larijani said, according to the radio.
The U.S. and European Union, which consider Hamas a terrorist group, have said they will halt their grants of hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to the Palestinian Authority after a Hamas government takes office unless it changes its attitude toward Israel and violence.
Hamas suicide bombers have killed hundreds of Israelis, and the group, which has refused to negotiate with the Jewish state, has long called for the destruction of Israel. While Hamas has respected an informal cease-fire since early last year, its leaders have refused to change their policies since the group won last month’s Palestinian elections by a landslide.
Israel regards Iran as a pariah for its support of militant groups such as Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah. When asked if Israel would try to block the Iranian money, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said that because the money would be going to a “terrorist” leadership, “we would be entitled to use all legal means to prevent that money from reaching its destination.”
