Over the last few days, Israel has shared a cache of secret Hamas documents that detail Hamas meetings with a member of the Iranian regime in the months leading up to the terror group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
The documents indi🐼cate Iran had advance knowledge o♍f Hamas’ plans.
Communications betwee𒈔n 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 more than 30 years ago.
But whᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚat many may not realize is the very first Hamas meetings wi🅰th Iran were led by a man whose rise within Hamas began on American soil.
College activist
Mousa Abu Marzook, the current deputy chief of the Hamas ﷺpolitical bureau, led the first meetings with thꩲe Iranian regime while he was a student at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, La.
Marzook was born in Rafah, in 1951. He was ed🦄ucated in Egypt prior to traveling to the United States on a student visa in the 1980s, where he first attended Colorado State University, then sought his post-graduate degree at Louisiana Tech.
He obtained a green card in 1990, married, had children and moved to Virg🔴inia.
Marzook was part of a group that established and oversaw a series of activist groups masquerading as charities in the US, inclu⛦ding Holy Land Foundation (HLF), the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), and the United Association 🧜for Studies and Research (UASR).
꧅His rise to power in Hamas coincided with the group’s battle for power and relevance in thꦫe First Intifada (1987-1993).
Hamas was founded as the Palestinian armed wing oꦅf the international Muslim Brotherhood in December 1987. The Hamas charter noted its de𒁃termination to annihilate Israel and oppose all peace negotiations and compromise, choosing the slogan “there is no solution to the Palestinian question except through Jihad.”
Hamas funded social services programs to win the hearts and minds of the Palestinian population — using groups such as Marzook’s Holy Land Foundation — but the terrorists expected loyalty and services from it🍷s recipients and their families in return.
Its social services platform included schools and religious centersౠ used to radicalize Palestinian youth, and ensured civilians would provide needed support for Hamas, such as providing homes and schools as cover for weap💃ons and tunnels.
Master strategist
Hamas was designated as a🅘 Specially Designated Terroris♍t (SDT) by the US government and as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 1997.
Marzook was al🅠so designated as an SDT in 1995 and deported from the US in 1997.
In the beginning, Hamas focused as much energy on overtaking Yasser Arafat’s Fatah as the leading party representing the Palestinian people as it did on defeating potential🧔 peace agr⭕eements 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 Israe🐻l.
A hidden document found in a 1994 covert FBI search at a reside🦩nce 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.
The document was introduced in the 2008 federal trial against🅘 the Holy Land Foundation, where the government accused the group of falsely raising money for “charity” that really was going to Palestinian terror organizations.
It details the first meeting between Hamas, represented by Marzook, and the director of the religiꦚous movements in the foreign ministry, Ali Mohamedi, on Sept. 30, 1990.
At that๊ meeting, Hamas sought to explain its goals to Iran and to det✅ermine what Iran wanted out of the relationship.
While residing in the United States, Marzook led another delegation to Tehran from Oct. 13-25, 1991, where he and other Hamas leaders met with the director of the Middle East section of the Iranian for൩eign ministry, and this was considered the fไirst “official meeting with the Iranian government.”
Axis of Resistance
At this meeting, the foreign ministe𒁏r agreed to allow Hamas to open an office in Tehran. During this series of meetings, Hamas also m💝et with officials from Hezbollah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Palestine Islamic Jihad, 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 resource🙈s.”
Hamas noted that Iran stood to benefit from their relationship because Iran sought to “break the regional and internatio🅠nal 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.”
In the summer of 1992, Hamas꧑ 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.
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But those weapons were not needed to fight Israel. They wanted the weapons so the💎y 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 ho🌸pe for a better future.
Brutal terror campaign
B🦋ut Hamas,♔ with Marzook at the helm, did not celebrate. They vowed to derail the Oslo Accords and undermine Arafat.
Iran stood behind Hamas, and so began years of brutal Hamas suicide bombings in Israel that wo💃uld ultimately lead to a Second Intifada (2000-2005), followed by Hamas gaining control over Gaza in 2007.
It was on the bri🔴nk ofꦑ another peace deal, this time between Saudi Arabia and Israel, that Hamas committed the atrocities Oct. 7, 2023.
Marzook now lives in Qatar, and with the death of Yahya Sin🐬war could be in line to take over leadership of Hamas — or at least be part of the council that runꦫs the group.
Hamas and Iran have always undꦗerstood 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’ infl🐽uence in the region.
Lorenzo Vidino and Lara Burns are researchers at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism. Their new report is “Propaganda, Procurement and Lethal Operations: Iran’s Activities Inside America.”
