Over the last few days, Israel shared a variety of secret HAMAS documents that purport to memorialize HAMAS meetings with a member of the Iranian regime in the months leading up to HAMAS’ October 7 terrorist attack on Israel. The documents indicate Iran had advanced knowledge of HAMAS’ plans to attack Israel. Communications between HAMAS and Iran regarding terrorist attacks on Israel should come as no surprise as HAMAS and Iran solidified their alliance and commitment to destroy Israel over thirty years ago.
What many may not realize is the very first HAMAS meetings with Iran were led by a man whose rise within Hamas began on American soil. Mousa Abu Marzook, the current Deputy Chief of the HAMAS Political Bureau, led HAMAS’ first meetings with the Iranian regime while he was a student at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana. Concurrently, Marzook was busy establishing and overseeing the US-based HAMAS infrastructure which included the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), and the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR). Marzook’s rise to power in HAMAS coincided with HAMAS’ battle for power and relevance in the First Intifada (1987-1993). At the time, HAMAS focused as much energy on overtaking the PLO as the leading party representing the Palestinian people as it did on defeating potential peace agreements with Israel. Marzook was a master strategist and understood the need to use his resources in the US, along with allies like Iran, to achieve its goals of annihilating Israel.
A hidden document found in a 1994 covert FBI search at a residence in Mississippi revealed the first series of meetings between Marzook and the Iranian regime, where Marzook sought to obtain financial, media and military support from Iran. Although the document was introduced in the 2008 federal trial against the HLF for its provision of support to HAMAS, the contents of the document and its significance have yet to be analyzed in the context of current events.
The document detailed the first meeting between HAMAS, represented by Marzook, and the Director of the Religious Movements in the Foreign Ministry, Ali Mohamedi, which occurred on September 30, 1990, in the United Arab Emirates. At that meeting, HAMAS sought to explain its goals to Iran and to determine what Iran wanted out of the relationship.
While residing in the US and overseeing the HAMAS’ infrastructure here, Marzook led another delegation to Tehran from October 13-25, 1991, where he and other HAMAS leaders met with the Director of the Middle East Section of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, and this was considered the first “official meeting with the Iranian government.” At this meeting, the Foreign Minister agreed to allow HAMAS to open an office in Tehran. During this series of meetings, HAMAS also met with officials from Hizballah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ), all of whom are now allied with Iran in the Axis of Resistance against Israel and the United States.
Further, the document reported on a series of meetings that had occurred between HAMAS and Iran in 1992, leading to Iran’s commitment to financially support HAMAS. In the documents, HAMAS recognized the importance of its relationship with Iran because Iran possessed “huge material and human resources.” HAMAS noted that Iran stood to benefit from their relationship because Iran sought to “break the regional and international isolation which was imposed on it due to the Iraq-Iran war” and also noted that Iran opposed American power in the region and sought “to contain it.”
While sealing Iran’s commitment to financially support HAMAS, Marzook was simultaneously working through his US-based infrastructure to position HAMAS ahead of the Palestine Liberation Organization and specifically Yasser Arafat’s party, Fatah, in Gaza and the West Bank.
In the summer of 1992, HAMAS sent messages to Marzook seeking money for weapons which Marzook then funneled through his charitable organization here, the HLF, to a Gaza-based charitable organization called the Islamic Relief Association. But those weapons were not needed to fight Israel. They wanted the weapons so they could “confront the traitors of Fatah.”
Within months, the Oslo Accords were signed between Israel and Yasser Arafat on behalf of the Palestinian people. The Accords paved a road map to potential peace in the region and for Palestinian self-rule in Gaza and the West Bank. Many Palestinians celebrated as there was hope for a better future. But HAMAS, with Marzook at the helm, did not celebrate. They vowed to derail the Oslo Accords, undermine Arafat, and defeat the Palestinian self-rule. Iran stood behind HAMAS, and so began years of brutal HAMAS suicide bombings in Israel that would ultimately lead to a Second Intifada, followed by HAMAS gaining control over Gaza, and ultimately the atrocities committed by HAMAS on October 7, 2023.
HAMAS and Iran have always understood the power of their alliance, using one another in various ways. They have capitalized on their joint ability to sow discord in the Middle East, disrupt attempts at peace, and sabotage potential for compromise, while pursuing the ultimate goal of annihilating Israel and ending what they see as the United States’ influence in the region.