A senior Hamas delegation led by Khalil al-Haya, who is responsible for the movement’s relations with the Arab and Islamic world, will leave for Damascus in the coming days, along with representatives of other Palestinian factions, and will meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad and other Syrian officials.
This is the first meeting of senior Hamas officials with the top of the Syrian regime after a 10-year disconnection following a dispute over the Syrian civil war.
Hamas officials said that at the expected meeting, the reasons for the crisis in relations between Hamas and the Syrian regime and the ways to return relations to their normal course will be discussed.
It will also discuss the state of the Palestinian problem and the possibility of reopening the Hamas offices in Damascus.
Senior officials in Hamas say that the political bureau of the movement made a decision more than a month ago to renew ties with the Syrian regime that were severed in 2012 following the civil war in Syria.
Syria is an important member of the “axis of evil” headed by Iran.
The decision was made at the top of Hamas as part of the strategy to strengthen the fight against Israel.
The Hamas movement has recently condemned the Israeli attacks on Syria’s airports and is trying to demonstrate positions that support Syria’s position in order to get closer to it.
Iran and Hezbollah, with the personal involvement of Hassan Nasrallah, are the ones who mediated between Hamas and the Syrian regime.
All the attempts of the Hamas leadership led by Ismail Haniyeh in recent years to reconcile with the Syrian president have failed, the top of the Iranian regime, through General Qassem Soleimani and with the help of Hezbollah leader personally intervened in the matter with President Bashar Assad but he rejected all reconciliation attempts outright, according to Syrians sources, he considered the behavior of Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, who decided in 2012 to move the Hamas headquarters from Syria to Qatar, an act of grave betrayal in Syria, which has supported the Hamas movement all along and assisted it for many years.
Sources in Hamas say that Ismail Haniyeh was ready to apologize to Syrian President Bashar Assad for the conduct of the Hamas leadership at the time. However, Bashar Assad was very careful and he kept his cards close to his chest, Syrian intelligence has information that the Hamas organization is indirectly involved in the fighting in Syria and that it assists the extremist Sunni Islamic organizations in Syria associated with the “Muslim Brotherhood” movement and fighting against the Syrian army.
The Syrian regime claims that these are terrorist organizations.
Sources in Hamas say that the Syrian regime has accused Hamas of subversive activity in the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria, and especially in what is happening in the Al-yarmouk refugee camp.
Khaled Mashal, the leader of Hamas abroad, is still strongly opposed to the renewal of ties with the Syrian regime, during his time as head of the political bureau of the movement in 2011, the rift between the Syrian regime and Hamas occurred because of Mashal’s opposition to the massacres committed by President Bashar Assad against his Sunni people.
Those in the leadership of Hamas who support the restoration of relations with Syria believe that the organization should take advantage of its “victory” over Israel during the events of May 2021 in order to return and establish itself in Syria and open from there, in coordination with Syria and Iran, another front against Israel.
, The military wing of Hamas can take advantage of its presence in Syria to develop its military capabilities, especially in the field of rockets and precision missiles.
The leadership of Hamas, which includes Ismail Haniyeh, Saleh al-Arouri and Yihya Sinwar, supports the relationship with President Bashar Assad and wants to renew it.
It is possible that in the end the reconciliation that Hamas so longs for will be achieved, it is possible that relations with Bashar Assad will be restored, but it won’t be what it used to be, the estimates in the Arab world are that Bashar Assad will not agree to the return of the Hamas headquarters to Damascus, we have to wait and see if there will be a continuation at a higher level of the meeting between the Hamas delegation led by Khalil al-Haya and the Syrian leadership and whether the leader of the movement Ismail Haniyeh will also be invited to Syria.
