There has been much talk in recent days about the possible effects of the latest US concession to Iran in the nuclear negotiations. Much of it centers on Iran’s demand for the immediate lifting of all economic sanctions. Only two weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that “the Obama administration estimates Iran has between $100 billion and $140 billion of its oil revenue frozen in offshore accounts as a result of sanctions. US officials said they expect Tehran to gain access to these funds in phases as part of a final deal. Iran could receive somewhere between $30 billion and $50 billion upon signing the agreement, said congressional officials briefed by the administration.”

This has led critics to worry that Iran will gain immediate access to enormous sums of money that it can use to bolster Hezbollah and strengthen Hamas in Gaza. In fact, very recently, the British newspaper The Telegraph reported that Iran has given Hamas millions of dollars to reconstruct the tunnels in the Gaza Strip that were destroyed by the IDF in last summer’s fighting. But even without the enormous new flow of funds promised by the removal of US and international sanctions, Iran has not limited its financial contributions in the Palestinian arena to Hamas or to Gaza.

Instead, the evidence suggests that it has been funneling money to the Palestinian Authority through its Shari’a courts and buying influence with the Palestinian public in the West Bank as well. One of the key channels of Iranian influence is the Al-Ansar Charitable Society, based in Gaza, which was designated an “unlawful association” by the State of Israel on 24 October 2003. The society has been transferring Iranian funds to the families of Palestinian “martyrs” (including many terrorists) on behalf of the Iranian funded, Martyrs Foundation in Lebanon. The Martyrs Foundation was listed as Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US Department of the Treasury eight years ago and declared by Israel to be an unlawful association a year earlier.

Read the article in full at Times of Israel.