DUBAI: Wealthy Gulf Arab states will not let Hamas ministers go home empty-handed, wary that Iran might gain influence by filling the funding vacuum faced by the new Hamas-led Palestinian government, analysts said.
Yet the Gulf states are in a bind.
They have historically supported the Palestinian cause, one that has deep popular resonance across the region. They are also US allies, with vital security and trade links to Washington.
Gulf states looked on with trepidation when Iran became one of the first nations to pledge money to the Hamas government after the United States and Europe began to choke off funding.
Already nervous about Iran’s nuclear programme and influence in Iraq, rulers in the Gulf are loathe to see Tehran gain leverage in the Middle East’s thorniest conflict, analysts said.
“Gulf countries cannot let Iran be the only financier for Hamas,” said Abdel-Khaleq Abdullah, a political commentator in the United Arab Emirates. “It would be a big mistake.”
Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar toured several Gulf states this week to drum up funds for the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority, so far netting donations from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar. Iran has already donated $100 million.
It is not clear how the money can be transferred to the Authority in view of the reluctance of Arab and other banks to risk falling foul of US laws against funding groups such as Hamas, which Washington classifies as terrorist.
The United States and the European Union have cut off direct aid to the Palestinian government over Hamas’s refusal to recognise Israel, renounce “violence” and honour past peace deals.
Gulf states, now flush with funds from record high oil prices, have pumped cash into health care, education and even Palestinian Authority coffers over the years.
“Arab states will not cut funding to the Palestinian people, regardless of whether they agree or disagree with the policies of their government,” said Saudi analyst Daoud al-Shiryan.
But Hamas’s landslide victory this year has put many of them in a tricky position, especially Saudi Arabia, which is battling its own brand of militant Islam and trying to shed its image among some in the West as a source of terrorist financing.
“Hamas is a benchmark for Islamist groups in the region,” Shiryan said. “Their success or failure will depend on outside help, yet it puts those offering this help in an awkward position of indirectly supporting a militant group.”
Hamas’ rejection of peace deals adds to the Gulf’s quandary — Qatar has low-level ties with Israel and Saudi Arabia has championed a proposal, endorsed by all Arab states, for peace with Israel if it leaves land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war and makes way for an independent Palestinian state.
“Hamas’s policies about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are illogical,” said Kuwaiti Islamist author Khalil Haidar, referring to its refusal to endorse a two-state solution.
“Once they realise they cannot inhabit a different dimension from the rest of the Arab governments, then the funds will start flowing in earnest. But now, they’re embarrassing the Arabs.”
The Gulf states may want to counter Iranian influence by funding the Palestinian Authority, but their political differences with Hamas, as well as US pressure, mean they are unlikely to make such donations with fanfare.—Reuters
