DAMASCUS — Palestinian resistance movement
Hamas on Wednesday
said it restored relations with the Syrian government after a visiting
delegation held a “historic meeting” with President Bashar Al-Assad in
Damascus.
اضافة اعلان
The Islamist group was long one of
Syria’s closest
allies, in large part due to a shared enmity towards Israel.
But it left Syria in 2012 after condemning the Assad
government’s brutal suppression of protests in March 2011, which triggered the
country’s descent into civil war.
“This is a glorious and important day, in which we
come back to our dear Syria to resume joint work,” Hamas’ chief of Arab
relations Khalil Al-Hayya told reporters in Damascus.
“This is a new start for joint
Palestinian-Syrian action,” he said after meeting Assad along with other representatives of
Palestinian factions.
Hamas and Assad have agreed to “move on from the
past and look to the future,” Hayya added.
By restoring ties with Damascus, Hamas cements its
role within the “axis of resistance” against its arch-enemy Israel, analysts
said, an Iran dominated alliance that extends to Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement
and Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Wednesday’s meeting with Assad “is in line with the
broader rapprochement between Hezbollah and Hamas evident in Lebanon over the
past year or more,” said Maha Yahya of the Carnegie Middle East Center.
The moves come amid fundamental shifts in Middle
East relationships, including the Islamist group’s long-time ally Turkey
restoring full diplomatic ties with Israel in August.
‘Hostile’ attitudes
Charles Lister, Director of the Syria Program at the
Middle East Institute, said rapprochement is the “only logical move” Hamas could take.
“Given the
prevailing regional trend of Arab engagement with Israel, it’s not surprising
to see Hamas’ leadership in Gaza seeking to re-enhance and amplify their role
within the axis of resistance,” he told AFP.
The UAE,
Bahrain, and Morocco have all normalized ties with Israel in the last couple of
years.
Aron Lund, a
fellow with the Century International think-tank, said the thaw has “been
propelled by the hostile regional attitude to Hamas and by Israel’s
normalization with several Arab states.”
“Hamas simply
doesn’t have the luxury of being able to ignore or oppose the Syrian government
indefinitely,” Lund said.
Hayya said there
was consensus among Hamas leadership and supporters over the resumption of ties
with Syria — a move also backed by the Palestinian group’s foreign sponsors.
“All the states
we notified of our decision were welcoming and supportive of the move,
including Qatar and Turkey, who encouraged us to take the step,” Hayya said.
Turkey supports
rebels against the government in Syria’s civil war, but has lately signaled a
willingness to reconcile with
Damascus.
According to
Lund, Hamas’ rapprochement with Damascus “seems to have been facilitated by the
fact that several other Arab states have reconnected with Assad’s regime.”
“Turkey’s recent
softening of tone will also have helped,” he told AFP.
‘Too early’
The Syrian presidency said Assad met a delegation of Palestinian
leaders without mentioning the restoration of ties with Hamas.
But the
presidency published a video of Assad and Hayya holding hands as they walked
with other Palestinian officials.
The two-day
Hamas visit to Syria comes after the Islamist group signed a reconciliation
deal with its Palestinian rival Fatah in Algiers last week, vowing to hold
elections by next October in a bid to settle a 15-year intra-Palestinian rift.
A Hamas leader
told AFP that the group, which was headquartered in the Syrian capital before
leaving the country, plans to reopen its
Damascus office.
But it was “too
early” to talk about relocating its headquarters to the Syrian capital, said
the official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The thaw between
Hamas and Damascus was brokered by Tehran and Hezbollah, a senior Hamas source
said.
For the past
decade, Syrian officials had accused Hamas of betrayal.
In a 2013
speech, Assad had accused Palestinian groups he did not identify of treating
the country like a “hotel” that they leave “when conditions are tough” in a
thinly veiled reference to Hamas.
Hamas has its
origins in the transnational
Muslim Brotherhood, whose Syrian branch was one of
the leading factions in the armed opposition after Syria’s civil war broke out.
Hamas officials have
said they broke ties with the Brotherhood in 2017.
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