Iran says it will help fund Hamas

TEHRAN, Iran -- 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 it would do all it legally could to stop the Palestinians from receiving the money.\nThe 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.\nLarijani said the decision was taken after the United States 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.\n"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.\nThe United States 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.\nHamas has long called for the destruction of Israel and has refused to negotiate with the Jewish state. Its leaders have refused to change their policies since the group won last month's Palestinian elections by a landslide.\nIsrael regards Iran as a pariah for its support of militant groups such as Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah, and it accuses Tehran of seeking to produce nuclear weapons -- a charge Iran denies. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently said Israel should be "wiped out."\nAsked if Israel would try to block the Iranian money, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said that since 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."\nIn Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said he had seen the reports concerning Iran's willingness to finance a Hamas government, but he did not verify them.\n"Iran's support of terror and Iran's support of violence as an acceptable way to achieve political aspirations is contrary to the policy and the statements of President Abbas; it's contrary to the policies and statements of the Quartet; it's, frankly, contrary to the actions of the civilized world," Ereli said.