ByNews Desk- The Cradle
A Hamas delegation visited Damascus on Thursday to coordinate a unified stance against Israeli aggression with the representatives of the Palestinian factions in Syria
Hayya, who is heading a Hamas delegation that arrived in Damascus on 2 March, was quoted to have told Al-Akhbar in a report released two days later that “relations with the Syrian government have returned to their previous state, and they are in the proper context which revolves around the belief in the right of the Palestinian people to defend themselves by any means and liberate their land.”
Thursday’s visit to the Syrian capital by the Hamas delegation marked the second official visit to Damascus by members of the organization in over a decade. The first visit took place on 19 October last year following the official announcement of the rekindling of ties between Syria and the Palestinian movement.
The delegation included Osama Hamdan, another member of Hamas’ political bureau who represented the organization in Syria for many years. On 2 March, the delegation held a private meeting with the representatives of the resistance factions in the Palestinian National Council (PNC) in Syria, aimed at coordinating a unified stance against Israel in the wake of its recent aggression.
The meeting’s aim was “discussing the consolidation of the Palestinian national position towards the aggression practiced by the occupation and settlers in the villages and towns of the West Bank, as well support to our Palestinian people in confronting and responding to these crimes,” Hayya told Al-Akhbar.
Hayya also condemned the Aqaba Summit, held in Jordan at the end of last month and attended by a number of Jordanian, Egyptian, and US officials, as well as representatives of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel, aimed at ‘diffusing tensions.’ During the summit, Israel reportedly agreed to halt illegal settlement expansion, despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denying this shortly afterward.
“Any meeting that does not criminalize the Zionist enemy for the massacres it commits against defenseless Palestinian civilians in the West Bank is rejected and denounced,” Hayya told the newspaper.
The Hamas official also revealed that several unannounced visits by Hamas to Syria have been made in the time between the first official visit and this most recent one, signifying the strengthening of ties between Damascus and the resistance faction.
He added that the delegation expressed its sincerest condolences to the Syrian people after the devastating earthquake and stressed the need for the international community to focus all its energy on providing relief to those affected by the disaster.
Regarding reports that the delegation will meet with President Bashar al-Assad, Ramez Mustafa, a leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), said that this may not happen during the current visit, but that “other meetings will be held with Syrian officials at different levels.”
According to Al-Akhbar, the Secretary-General of the PFLP, Talal Naji – who reportedly played a big part in the rekindling of Hamas-Syria ties, expressed joy at “seeing the brothers in Hamas on the dear land of Damascus.”
In 2012, a year after the start of the US-backed war in Syria, Hamas severed relations with the Damascus government and withdrew its representation from Syria. Elements of the organization aligned themselves with the extremist opposition fighting to oust Assad. Many said at the time that Hamas had fallen victim to sectarian propaganda, which was aimed at causing disunity among the resistance axis, of which Syria is an integral part.
“The axis of resistance has thwarted all attempts to create discord between its parties and to play on the chord of differences between them to eliminate the culture of resistance against the Zionist entity,” Naji was quoted by Al-Akhbar.
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