Hamas announced on September 16 its decision to renew its ties with Syria after a long disconnection of several years.
The announcement stated that “Hamas stands by Syria against the plans to divide it”.
Hamas officials said that the negotiations to renew Hamas’ ties with Syria intensified after Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip in May 2021, mediated by Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and under the auspices of Iran.
In a statement issued by the Hamas movement, it condemned Israel’s repeated attacks on Syria, especially on its airports and announced its ” full commitment to the side of Syria”.
It also condemned the normalization process between Israel and the Arab countries and Israel’s attempts to take control of the natural treasures in the region.
Khalil al-Chaya, the deputy leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, said that the Hamas movement informed Turkey and Qatar about his movement’s intention to renew ties with Syria, and they did not object.
Hamas sources said that the road to reconciliation between Hamas and Syria had already paved and that several high-ranking Hamas officials had visited Syria.
The tensions between the Hamas movement and the Syrian regime increased with the outbreak of the civil war in Syria, the leadership of Hamas led by H. Khaled Mashaal at that time refused to accept the massacres of the Syrian regime against Sunni Syrian citizens, in March 2012 relations reached a complete break and Khaled Mashaal moved the Hamas headquarters from Damascus to Doha in Qatar.
Since then, President Bashar Assad has regularly accused the Hamas movement of betraying the Syrian regime and fought against him in Syria alongside the rebels, 1700 Palestinians are currently detained in Syria, some of them Hamas operatives arrested during the civil war.
General Qassem Soleimani and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah have been trying since 2017 to bring about reconciliation between the Hamas movement and the Syrian regime, Hamas was ready to go a long way towards the Syrian president, however, Bashar Assad refused to hear about the issue, for him it was an unforgivable betrayal by Hamas of the people and the Syrian regime who supported it for decades.
The change of administration in the US, and the process of normalization between Israel and the Arab countries and the struggle over the Iranian nuclear issue have resulted in the renewal of reconciliation talks in recent months.
A senior Hamas official said that Hamas did not participate in the civil war in Syria and it only expressed its opinion on the relationship between the Syrian people and the regime, “Hamas wants to develop ties with Arab countries still in a state of direct conflict with Israel and Syria is one of them, this is the policy of Hamas”, he explained.
Syrian officials estimate that the position of President Bashar Assad has softened, he is in a frontal conflict with the “Muslim Brotherhood” axis led by Turkey and Qatar and he wants to create a balance through reconciliation with the Sunni Hamas movement.
The process of the internal elections for the leadership of Hamas in which Ismail Haniyeh was elected once again to the position of chairman of the movement’s new political bureau also contributed to the renewal of reconciliation talks between Hamas and Syria.
The victory of Ismail Haniyeh , supported by Iran, over Khaled Mashaal, supported by Turkey and Qatar, was an important step towards reconciliation with Syria.
Khaled Mashaal despises Bashar Assad’s regime and opposes Hamas’s close relationship with Iran, which in his opinion harms the movement’s independence.
According to Hamas sources, Yichya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and Muhammad Deif, the commander-in-chief of the military wing, support reconciliation with Syria, which in the future allows Hamas to open another front against Israel from the Syrian border.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said that the Hamas movement is also working to renew ties with Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Senior Hamas official Khaled Mashal recently visited Jordan for what was defined as a “family visit”.
Hamas movement is defined in Saudi Arabia as a “terrorist organization” and about 60 operatives of the movement are on trial in Saudi Arabia on charges of smuggling and money laundering for the military wing of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas sources say that the timing of Hamas’s announcement of its decision to renew ties with Syria is important in light of the international and regional developments following the war in Ukraine and Israel’s attempts to take control of natural gas in the Mediterranean Sea in order to supply natural gas to Europe.
According to them, the Hamas movement is interested in strengthening its ties with the “axis of resistance” in the Middle East, A senior delegation of Hamas led by Ismail Haniyeh visited Russia recently and met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss the Israeli effort to extract natural gas from the Mediterranean Sea, at the same time the Hamas movement launched a campaign demanding the lifting of the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip and emphasizing its right and ownership of the natural gas reserves off the coast of the Gaza Strip.
