Hamas announces reconciliation with Syria on its first visit in a decade

The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas today announced a reconciliation with Syria during its first visit to the Arab country since it broke off relations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a decade ago in the wake of popular uprisings launched in 2011 against Damascus. 

"Today we met with President Bashar al-Assad, a meeting we consider historic and a renewed beginning of joint Palestinian-Syrian work in the face of Syria's welcome to the Palestinian people," Hamas head for Arab Relations Jalil al-Hayya told a press conference in the Syrian capital. 

Al-Hayya appeared before the media along with leaders of other Palestinian factions after the meeting with al-Assad, who during the conversation conveyed his country's "firm determination" to support "the Palestinian resistance" and expressed his desire to "turn all the pages of the past".

The Islamist movement's senior official, who is also a member of its political bureau, described the meeting as "warm" and noted that among the Palestinian groups taking part was Islamic Jihad. 

"The president received us with an open heart, a warm heart and a transcendental attitude, through which he expressed Syria's love for Palestine and the Palestinian people (...) and his determination that today's meeting will open a new page," he said. 

For its part, the Syrian presidency confirmed in a statement that Al-Assad explained to them how his country's "support" for the Palestinian resistance remains unchanged "in any way", despite the armed conflict it has been suffering for more than a decade on its territory. 

"Syria, known to all before and after the war, will not change and will continue to support the resistance," Al-Assad assured the delegation, considering this movement to be a "basis for the restoration of rights" and not a "point of view".

According to the note from the presidential body, the Palestinian factions showed their support for the Syrian president in the face of the "international aggressions" he is suffering and the effects of the "US-Zionist project", referring to Washington's presence in areas of the country outside Damascus' control. 

Israel also frequently carries out missile attacks on Syrian territory, where it considers the presence of Iranian and Lebanese militias allied to the Syrian government a threat to its security. 

Relations between Hamas and al-Assad were damaged a decade ago, when the Palestinian Islamist movement publicly backed the popular uprising launched in 2011 against the Syrian president's government and abandoned its headquarters in Damascus in 2012, a move that infuriated their common ally Iran.

The ties of Hamas - which has de facto ruled Gaza since 2007 - with Iran were later restored and the Islamic Republic contributed to the construction of the group's long-range rocket arsenal, which is considered terrorist by Israel. 

Israel re-established relations with Turkey and maintains secret contacts with Qatar, both of which are key Hamas allies abroad, and analysts blame this policy shift on the group's need to expand its international alliances vis-à-vis the Jewish state. 

In response to a question, al-Hajjah said today that no country has so far communicated its opposition to reconciliation between Hamas and Damascus, including Qatar and Turkey, a supporter of the Syrian opposition.