Hamas, Iran plot closer path forward amid Qatar crisis

When Hamas’ politcal bureau member Izzat al-Rishq, heading a delegation from the movement, met with Iran’s supreme leader’s foreign policy adviser, Ali Akbar Velayati, it was the first time the two men had met since 1991, when the former was still a junior member of Hamas and the latter was Iran’s foreign minister….

Memories of the first meeting came to mind not only for the personal aspect but also because Hamas’ recent visit to Iran — as in 1991 — is aimed at putting relations back on track. For this specific reason, members of the delegation were chosen carefully so that they represent all lines of thought in the movement.

The meeting with Velayati wasn’t the only meeting the delegation held in Tehran; they also met with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani, and they took part in President Hassan Rouhani’s inauguration ceremony on Aug. 5, side by side with dozens of delegations from around the world….

Al-Monitor has learned that the Hamas delegation additionally met with the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, yet there is no further information on what transpired in the meeting. An Iranian political source revealed to Al-Monitor that as of now all the implications of the previous five years are gone, and Iran’s support for Hamas is now even beyond what it used to be prior to the Syrian crisis….

The official hinted, “There are attempts to make us accept Israel in the region as one of us, an ordinary state, via an Arab-Israeli peace conference, yet the response of the people of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque gave a clear message that this is not possible. The Israelis and the Americans aren’t going to give up, and they are going to add pressure. Therefore, the situation in the region prompts us to have a unified Palestinian stance in coordination with regional players who have the Palestinian cause high on their priority list to confront this project.”