Iran to Hamas: DON'T leave Syria!

[TruthSeeker]

Iran warns Hamas against leaving Syria

DECEMBER 5, 2011 ⋅ 2:36 PM ⋅ POST A COMMENT

Iran has threatened to cut off funds and arms to Hamas if its officials vacate their Damascus headquarters and leave Syria, Palestinian sources told Haaretz.

Hamas officials involved in raising funds for the organization’s military wing and some members of the political leadership have already left Syria with their families for Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan and Qatar, the sources said.

The sources told Haaretz “second- and third-ranking” Hamas activists are leaving but senior leaders such as Khaled Masha’al will remain in the Syrian capital.

Salah al-Arouri, a senior Hamas official, told the newspaper the organization had yet to make a decision on the matter. He said one or two families may have left but that top officials remained at the headquarters.

“The organization’s top officials are here in Damascus; our relations with the state and Syrian people are excellent … we have no intention of interfering in Syria’s internal affairs,” he told the daily newspaper.

Iran warns Hamas against leaving Syria | Ya Libnan | World News Live from Lebanon

 

[TruthSeeker]

Hamas considers whether to pull leadership out of Syria

By Phoebe Greenwood, Tel Aviv and David Blair, 7:01PM GMT 05 Dec 2011

The deaths of more than 4,000 people, largely at the hands of Mr Assad's forces, have placed the long-standing relationship between Hamas and Syria under unprecedented strain.

Khaled Meshaal, the Hamas leader, is currently based in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and benefits from the protection of Mr Assad. Syria conducted a major military exercise yesterday, designed as a show of force and a demonstration of the president's resolve to hold on in the face of a spreading insurgency.

But Hamas fears that its links with an increasingly isolated and discredited regime are becoming a liability. Its decision over whether to leave Syria has been complicated by the position of Iran, the other leading state sponsor of Hamas. Tehran wants the Palestinian group to stay in Syria and has threatened to stop supplying funds and weapons if Hamas decides to leave.

Senior Palestinian officials in the West Bank confirmed that relations between Hamas and Syria have steadily deteriorated.
"Ties between the Syrians and Hamas have been seriously undermined by recent events – they have been bad for some time. But the interference of Iran in this matter is new," said one.

Iran's leverage over Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, may be weaker than once thought. Hamas has disclosed that Gaza's administration relies on outside funding for 30 per cent of its annual budget of $650 million (£415 million). A relatively small proportion of this sum comes from Iran.

Most of Tehran's support is believed to be in the form of weapons. On March 15, a German-owned ship sailing from Syria to Egypt was found to be carrying more than 50 tons of arms, including mortar bombs, anti-ship missiles and ammunition for Kalashnikov assault rifles. The consignment's origin in Iran was shown by the fact that instructions for the munitions were written in Farsi.
However, Hamas's reliance on Iran has been reduced by a new stream of weaponry coming from Libya since the fall of Col Muammar Gaddafi. Ties between Hamas, a Sunni movement, and Iran's Shia regime have never been ideological, but born out of mutual enmity to Israel.

Dr Samir Awwad, a professor of international relations at Birzeit University in the West Bank, said that Hamas had already decided in principle to leave Damascus, adding that it was prepared to do so even if that meant losing Iran's support.
"Theirs was a marriage of convenience and this marriage is no longer convenient. A relationship with Iran is now of greater harm than benefit to Hamas," he said.

The Hamas leadership is seeking a new base in the Arab world, with the possibility that it might divide its headquarters between Jordan and Egypt. Doha, the capital of Qatar, was also a likely option, according to an international official based in the region.
Michael Herzog, former chief of staff to the Israeli defence minister, said it was "evident and absolutely clear" that Hamas was "looking for an alternative".

"They realise that given events in Syria, remaining there may not be sustainable," he added.
Dr Awwad believes the Hamas leadership is trying to dissociate itself from the old order of Middle Eastern autocrats and realign itself with the region's emerging powers, notably the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

The acting military government in Cairo has already played a significant role in reconciling Hamas with Fatah, the rival Palestinian faction, and in leading negotiations with Israel to secure the release of thousands of prisoners in exchange for the freedom of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier.

Hillel Frisch, an Israeli expert in Palestinian nationalism, said that Hamas saw an alliance with the new order in Egypt as more important than Iranian support. "With the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, Cairo is now seen as a power that could certainly replace Iran. Hamas is riding the tide of history," he said. "Iran might threaten Hamas, but the idea of it acting on these threats and cutting ties just isn't credible. They need Hamas now as things play out in Syria and Israel increases its focus on attacking Iran."
Salah Al-Arouri, a Hamas official, was quoted in Israel's Haaretz newspaper Monday denying any plan to leave Syria.
"The organisation's top officials are here in Damascus; our relations with the state and Syrian people are excellent," he said.
However, a number of more junior Hamas officials and their families are understood to have already left Damascus.

Hamas considers whether to pull leadership out of Syria - Telegraph

 

[yahya07]

I think Iran should cut ties with Hamas. They have very little military capability, they aren't the dominant political force in occupied Palestine yet they give way too much bad publicity to Iran.

 

[TruthSeeker]

Hamas Removing Staff From Syria

By JOSHUA MITNICK

Hamas ordered the departure of nearly all its staff at its Damascus headquarters by next week following pressure from Turkey and Qatar, two regional allies trying to isolate Syrian President Bashar al-Assad amid an eight-month crackdown on antiregime protests, according to a Hamas official.

The Islamic militant group's parting of ways with Mr. Assad marks the latest blow to his regime. Damascus has hosted Hamas since the Palestinian group was forced out of Jordan in the late 1990s.

Leaving Syria also distances Hamas from Iran, an ally of President Assad that has provided the Palestinian militants with money, training and military hardware. Over recent months, Tehran has urged Hamas not to relocate, the official said.

Hamas will establish new headquarters in Cairo and Qatar to replace its operations in Syria, the official added. At the same time, Hamas leader Khaled Meshal is scheduled to meet with King Abdullah II of Jordan to discuss upgrading its presence in the kingdom.

The shift from Syria to Egypt is expected to moderate Hamas's behavior while reducing Tehran's ability to threaten clashes with Israel, said Meir Javedanfar, an Iran expert based in Israel, who called the move "a major strategic setback'' for Iran.

Hamas officials have for months sought to portray the organization as neutral in the Syrian conflict. But recent progress in Hamas's rapprochement with Egypt and Jordan has emboldened the militants to accelerate their departure after months of quiet preparations—an operation dubbed by members as "soft exit."

The Hamas security official said that 90% of the staff will be dispersed to cities around the region, leaving behind a nominal presence in Damascus.

Over recent months, Hamas has been divesting itself of Syrian assets, including business investments, real estate and bank deposits, the Hamas official said.

After the Arab League decision to impose sanctions on Damascus last month, Hamas leaders were admonished by Ankara and Doha.

"Qatar and Turkey urged us to leave Syria immediately," said a senior Hamas security official who has relocated to Gaza from Damascus. "They said, 'Have you no shame? It's enough. You have to get out.' "

Meanwhile, dozens of bodies were dumped in the streets of Homs, Syria, at the heart of the uprising, in a sign that sectarian bloodshed is escalating.

Up to 50 people were killed on Monday, but details came to light Tuesday on reports of retaliatory attacks pitting the Alawite sect against Sunnis.

The discovery in Homs came as the U.S. stepped up pressure Tuesday on the Assad regime to end its crackdown on the anti-government protests. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met in Geneva with Syrian opposition figures, and Washington said it was sending its ambassador back to Damascus.

Mark Toner, U.S. State Department spokesman, said U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford was returning to Syria to "continue the work he was doing previously—namely, delivering the United States' message to the people of Syria, providing reliable reporting on the situation on the ground, and engaging with the full spectrum of Syrian society on how to end the bloodshed and achieve a peaceful political transition," Mr. Toner said.

Turkish criticism of its Syrian neighbor's conduct has been increasingly harsh, with Prime Minister Recep Erdogan calling for Mr. Assad to step down. Qatar, meanwhile, has led efforts by the Arab League to punish Syria. While Turkey has lobbied for an end to Israel's blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza, Qatar has provided financial support.

Hamas officials were unavailable for official comment. One Hamas official, Salah al-Arouri, quoted in Israel's Haaretz newspaper, denied reports there of a decision to leave Damascus and called group ties with the government "excellent."

Arab observers have linked Hamas's consent to an October prisoner swap with Israel and to a November summit meeting with rival, President Mahmoud Abbas, with a desire to improve its credentials with Egypt's government in anticipation of a departure from Syria.

Hamas is considered by analysts to be more welcome in Cairo after the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and in anticipation of a Parliament dominated by parties of the Muslim Brotherhood.

In addition to the external pressure, Hamas's presence in Damascus put the organization at odds with its own grass roots in the Palestinian territories, well as with Islamist affiliates within Syria, where the local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood is leading one of the main groups opposing the regime.

Moreover, Hamas-affiliated clerics regularly deliver sermons in Gaza mosques blaming the Syrian government for the death toll of 4,000 in the uprising and predicting the eventual collapse of the regime.

When newly released Hamas prisoners arrived in Damascus in November after being deported from the Palestinian territories as part of a swap with Israel, they thanked the Syrian people rather than mentioning the government. The omission was telling, said Mkhaimar Abusada, a professor of political science at Al Azhar University in Gaza City,

"That is a sign [Hamas] is unhappy," he said. "It seems to me that Hamas is in a very bad position by keeping its headquarters in Damascus."

Meanwhile, Hamas leader Khaled Meshal has made repeated trips to Cairo, and a deputy, Moussa Abu Marzook, is expected to head up the operation there, said Gershon Baskin, an Israeli peace activist who passed messages with Hamas during the negotiations leading to the prisoner swap of Gilad Shalit.

Hamas Removing Staff From Syria - WSJ.com