Iran said on Sunday it had yet to pay $50 million it had pledged to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority and suggested the process for payment was still being discussed.
The donation was announced in April to make up a shortfall left by an aid cut-off by the United States and the European Union and Israel's freezing of the transfer tax and customs receipts to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian government.
"The process of that $50 million contribution is in the phase of decision-making now ... The payment that I talked about has not been paid yet," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference at a regional ministerial meeting. He gave no further details.
Israel has launched an offensive in Gaza to press the Hamas-led government, which is already on the brink of financial collapse, to help free an Israeli soldier who was abducted by militants in a cross-border raid on June 25. The offensive also aims to halt rocket fire on Israeli cities.
Foreign ministers from Iraq's neighbouring countries meeting in Tehran, where Mottaki made his comments, issued a statement condemning the Israeli offensive.
Iran's Islamic government has never recognised Israel and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regularly condemns the Jewish state in his speeches. Last year, he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map".
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