Iran punishes Hamas for not backing Assad
Sydney Morning Herald / Sydney Morning Herald
22-Aug-2011 (2 comments)

GAZA: Iran has turned off the tap of funds to Hamas after the Islamist movement that controls Gaza failed to show public support for the embattled regime of the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, Reuters reported.

It said that Hamas did not pay the July salaries of its 40,000 civil service and security employees. Diplomats and intelligence agencies told Reuters that Hamas receives funding from Iran and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, but that funding had dropped off over the past two months as Tehran showed displeasure at Hamas's failure to hold public rallies in support of President Assad and the Muslim Brotherhood diverted funds to support Arab Spring revolts.

Last year, Hamas said its budget was $US540 million ($518.8 million), with just $US55 million of that raised through local taxes on merchants and goods brought into the Gaza Strip from Israel or smuggled in from Egypt.

Read more: //www.smh.com.au/world/iran-punishes-hamas-for-not-backing-assad-20110822-1j6lb.html#ixzz1VmXVBuNT

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vildemose

 Thank you for posting.

by vildemose on Mon Aug 22, 2011 08:36 PM PDT

 Thank you for posting. Intriguing development, indeed.

"Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe." Robert Browning in 'Ceuciaja'


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Simorgh5555

Iran Gaza

by Simorgh5555 on Mon Aug 22, 2011 10:42 AM PDT

As I have said right from the beginning the Islamic Republic's concern for the Palestinians is nothing but a mass orchestrated publicity stunt to create an enemy entity in Israel so that it can silence its opponents and to use it as a distraction from its failed domestic polciies. The IR has no intention to confront Israel directly only to weaken it. It welcomes Israel's existance by virtue of the fact that it does more than $100 million dollars of trade each year through European, Turkish and Jordanian intermediaries. 

Quds Day should be called 'Day of Hypocricy' or as NIAC Trita Parsi called it, the day Arafat was promised by the dead Ayhatollah Khomeini that the Islamic Republic will give lip service (no pun intended) to the Palestinians but not confront Israel directly.  


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