Source: Manar TV, 12/12/2006
Iran has pledged $250 million (euro190 million) in aid to the cash-strapped Hamas-led Palestinian government, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Monday.
Haniyeh`s office announced the donation at the end of a four-day visit by the prime minister to the Iranian capital. He then traveled to Sudan.
Western donors cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinian people after Hamas won democratically the parliamentary elections last January. Iran already has pledged $120 million (euro91 million) to the Hamas-led government this year.
"The total amount of financial aid from Iran will reach around a quarter billion dollars," Haniyeh told Hamas` Web site.
The money includes $100 million (euro76 million) in direct aid to the government, $45 million (euro34 million) for workers` salaries and assistance to the families of prisoners held by "Israel"; $60 million (euro45.5 million) for unemployed Palestinians; $20 million (euro15 million) to rebuild houses destroyed in fighting with the Zionist regime and $15 million (euro11 million) for libraries and cultural programs, the Web site said.
Meanwhile, Visiting Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said here on Monday that his visit to Iran was successful and that during his stay in Tehran he witnessed "great understanding, sympathy, affection and brotherhood."