Iran Pledges $50 Million to Cash-Strapped Palestinians

Iran’s government Sunday pledged $50 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority, which is nearing bankruptcy, culminating a conference here that was designed to showcase Iranian support for the Palestinians.

The United States and other Western governments have cut off aid to the Palestinian governing authority since Hamas, the militant Islamic movement, won elections in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Hamas refuses to accept Israel’s right to exist, and Washington considers it a terrorist organization.

The announcement by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki marked the first time that Iranian officials had publicly disclosed details of aid to a radical Islamic movement.

The Palestinian Authority is the largest employer in the Palestinian territories, and because of the aid cutoff is now two weeks overdue in paying salaries to more than 140,000 workers.

Iran has been eager to show itself at the forefront of Muslim efforts to support the Palestinians. At the conference, Mottaki said that support for the Palestinians was at the top of Iran’s foreign policy agenda.

“The Islamic world should help the new Palestinian government to overcome its current problems,” Mottaki said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. The cutoff of Western aid would have “no impact on the strong will” of the Palestinians, he added.

But the $50-million pledge would cover less than a month of the Palestinian Authority’s expenses. Its payroll runs between $60 million and $80 million a month.

And at a news conference Sunday, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel, indicated that even Tehran’s pledged funds may not reach the Palestinians for some time.

Asked about complaints by Hamas that it had yet to receive any aid from Iran, Adel said, “It is natural that Hamas expects help from us and other Islamic countries as when the enemies cut off aid, friends should not behave in the same way.

“The issue of the amount and the modality of payment to the Palestinian nation is an issue for the experts. And if there’s been no response yet, it is because the experts’ work is a time-consuming work.”

The Iranian leadership has used the conference here to broadcast images of support for Hamas. On Friday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, took the rare step of personally attending the conference, giving an opening speech that called on all Muslim nations to help the Palestinians in any way they could.

Khamenei embraced Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in front of the cameras. He received a kaffiyeh -- a checkered scarf -- as a gift and allowed members of the Palestinian delegation to put it around his neck.