Ten years ago, Hamas, the Palestinian movement that rules the Gaza Strip, publicly came out in support of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
“I salute all the nations of the Arab Spring and I salute the heroic people of Syria who are striving for freedom, democracy and reform,” Ismail Haniya, one of Hamas leaders, announced at Friday prayers at Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo.
“The Syrian revolution is an Arab revolution,” worshippers chanted back, as Hamas’s break with the Syrian government, which used to host its leaders, became evident.
But now, a decade on, Hamas has reversed its position, and ties have been restored.
The move has sparked controversy in the Arab world, but it has not elicited surprise, with analysts saying that the Hamas decision reflects its backing of Iran and its allies – Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Syria – which have supported its fight against Israel.
“Although Hamas sided in part with Syria’s opposition for a time, it never fully broke away from Iran’s orbit and as such, it was always going to come back to Assad’s fold eventually,” said Charles Lister, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.
“Hamas’s existence is defined by its resistance to Israel and to sustain that, it not only needs Iran’s strategic support, it needs Syria too,” he told Al Jazeera.
Reconnecting
Relations between Syria and the Palestinian movement were strong for many years, with Damascus being a safe haven for Hamas’s leadership since the early 2000s. Syria was also home to at least 500,000 Palestinians, according to United Nations estimates.
But the start of the 2011 Syrian revolt proved to be a breaking point in their ties, as relations quickly soured between Hamas and its longtime ally.
Hamas leaders rejected pressure from al-Assad to rally in his support in Damascus, and instead endorsed the opposition. They were then swiftly forced to shutter their offices in the Syrian capital city, before moving to Qatar in 2012.
Despite the apparent freeze in ties, discussions to mend relations have long continued among Hamas leaders, according to senior Hamas official Bassem Naim, who told Al Jazeera that Hamas “never decided to cut ties with Damascus”.
In a statement on September 15, Hamas said it was indebted to Damascus which had “embraced” the Palestinian people and resistance for decades.
It added that it was now the group’s turn to “stand” with Syria in the face of “brutal aggression”, in reference to escalating Israeli attacks on Syria – the latest of which killed five soldiers in an air attack on Damascus International Airport on September 17.
“The foundation of our engagement in the region is one of continuity for the sake of the Palestinian cause,” said Naim, who heads Hamas’s council of political and foreign affairs. “We need the support of all Muslim and Arab countries and people.”
“Cutting ties with any entity must be justified in terms of the interests of the Palestinian people. In that regard, the only relation we refuse is with the Israeli occupation,” he added.
Naim argued that, as some Arab countries had chosen to normalise ties with Israel, it was “only logical for Hamas to side with those who choose resistance against the Zionist enemy”.
In 2020, four Arab countries – the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco – normalised relations with Israel in United States-brokered deals that elicited mixed global reactions.
Source » aljazeera