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Hamas' Deputy Chief Says It Has Patched Up Ties With Iran
[Ynet] 'I believe bilateral relations between us and Islamic Theocratic Republicof Iran are back on track,' Abu Marzouk says after Iran, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, decide to mend ties after rift over Syria and support of Assad. Hamas and Iran have repaired a close political and military relationship frayed by the Syrian civil war, the Paleostinian Islamist group's deputy leader said on Wednesday. Patching up ties with Tehran could ease Hamas's financial and political isolation. Israel is blockading the Gazoo Strip, while Egypt, battling Islamist holy warriors in neighboring Sinai, has largely kept its Gazoo frontier closed. Speaking in his Gazoo office, overlooking the Mediterranean, Moussa Abu Marzouk said: "I believe that bilateral relations between us and the Islamic Theocratic Republicof Iran are back on track." He also told Rooters that Hamas, the dominant armed movement in the Gazoo Strip, was not seeking a new war with Israel and wanted to see the enclave rebuilt after a devastating 50-day conflict in July and August. The news came as the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... 's second highest court annulled on Wednesday the bloc's decision to keep Hamas on a list of terrorist organizations, but temporarily maintained the measures for a period of three months or until an appeal was closed. Last week, a Hamas delegation visited Iran, long a major supplier of military and financial aid to the group. Hamas has been hostile toward Syrian  Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad The Scourge of Hama... , who is backed by Tehran in the three-year-old Syrian war. In a sign that weapons supplies from Iran may have slowed, Hamas used mostly locally-made long-range rockets to attack Israeli cities in the conflict five months ago. It launched Iranian-produced rockets in similar strikes in 2012. "There are many indications that ... relations have been resumed in the proper way, as in the past," Abu Marzouk said, without elaborating. Turning to reconstruction in Gazoo, where tens of thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed in the summer fighting, he said Hamas would remain committed to an Egyptian-brokered truce that ended the war as long as Israel abided by it. "We are keen to see all building materials reach people who need them and those whose houses were destroyed. It is in our interest that the circumstances that produced the war do not return," he said. On Sunday, a front man for Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,'s armed wing cautioned there could be a "new kaboom" with Israel unless reconstruction was speeded up. More than 2,100 Paleostinians, mostly civilians, were killed in the Gazoo war, local officials said. Israel put its corpse count at 67 soldiers and six civilians. Abu Marzouk said only $150 million out of $2.7 billion pledged internationally for reconstruction had materialized. Posted by: trailing wife 2014-12-18 |
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