Senior Hamas Delegation Visits Syria for 1st Time in 10 Years

A Hamas delegation arrived in Syria Wednesday for a two-day visit and will meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad. It is the first such visit since the armed Palestinian organization broke ties with Damascus a decade ago. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, was a close ally of Assad until the Syrian leader brutally suppressed Arab Spring protests in March 2011, triggering the civil war that has continued ever since.

Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose Syrian branch has been a leading force in the rebellion against Asaad’s rule. But Hamas says it officially broke ties with the Brotherhood in 2017.

The Hamas delegation is headed by Khalil al-Hayya, the Islamist organization’s head of Arab relations, and follows the signing of a reconciliation deal in Algiers last week with rival Fatah, which heads the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority government. The two sides agreed to hold long-awaited Palestinian elections by next October.

The Hamas-Syria rapprochement was brokered by Iran and its proxy in Lebanon, Hizbullah, a senior Hamas source said.

A Hamas leader told the French news agency AFP that the group planned to reopen its Damascus office but that it was “too early” to talk about relocating its headquarters to the Syrian capital.