Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice toured the region on Wednesday partly to drum up support for a united stand on Hamas, Iran offered to help fill the financial void in the Palestinian Authority left by the U.S. decision not to support a Hamas-led government.
Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal has been holding talks with Iranian officials in Tehran for the last few days. Mashaal said on Tuesday that Iran would have an increasing role in the Palestinian Authority.
The secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, was quoted by Iranian radio as saying that his country would offer aid to the Palestinians.
"The United States proved that it would not support democracy after it cut its aid to the Palestinian government after Hamas won elections. We will certainly help the Palestinians" Larijani was quoted as saying.
The U.S. has said that it would discontinue funding the P.A. until Hamas recognizes Israel's right to exist, renounces terrorism and violence and agrees to honor previous agreements between the P.A. and Israel, (which also include a renunciation of violence).
But Hamas officials have made it clear that they have no such intention.
Speaking to a cheering crowd of students, some chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" at Tehran University, Mashaal said Hamas would not give up its "resistance" - a euphemism for terrorism.
"Now that we are in power, it does not mean that the resistance will be halted," Mashaal said. "Without resistance we would have not been able to free our lands," he said in reference to the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last summer. Hamas claimed the unilateral Israeli pullout as a victory for terrorism.
On the homepage of the Az-a-Din al-Qassam Brigades website, an armed terrorist faction of Hamas, a small graphic appears to wipe out Israel in a nuclear blast.
A Jewish Star of David - the symbol of Israel - appears in a black rectangle and then disappears in an explosion and mushroom cloud, the Palestinian Media Watch said.
Meanwhile, Rice is on a five-day visit to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. She is trying to gather support for a united stand on both Hamas and Iran.
Following a meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Abdel Ali Aboul Gheit, Rice said that if a Hamas-led government wanted to meet the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a peaceful, better, economically developed life, it could not "have one foot in the camp of terror and the other foot in the camp of politics."
Rice said that the U.S. would continue to try to meet the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people.
But Gheit said he believed Hamas needed time. "I'm sure that Hamas will develop, will evolve." Gheit also said Egypt objected to Israel's current policy of withholding tax revenues from the P.A.
Israel decided on Sunday to halt the transfer of funds to the P.A., which amounts to about $50 million monthly.
Rice is not expected to visit Israel on this trip. Some sources said she wanted to avoid the problem of who to meet within the P.A.
A senior U.S. diplomat, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch, is due in the region soon.
He will likely meet with Israeli officials to discuss the current situation, a U.S. Embassy official said. It is not clear yet who he will meet on the Palestinian side but it will not be anyone related to Hamas, the official said.
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