Reuters is reporting that Hamas and Iran have repaired their political and military relationship following a breech in those relationships as a result of the Syrian war. According to the report:
Hamas
December 17, 2014 Hamas and Iran have repaired a close political and military relationship frayed by the Syrian civil war, the Palestinian 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 Gaza Strip, while Egypt, battling Islamist militants in neighboring Sinai, has largely kept its Gaza frontier closed.
Speaking in his Gaza office, overlooking the Mediterranean, Moussa Abu Marzouk said: ‘I believe that bilateral relations between us and the Islamic Republic of Iran are back on track.’
He also told Reuters that Hamas, the dominant armed movement in the Gaza 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.
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 President Bashar al-Assad, 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.
The GMBDW reported earlier this month that a high-level Hamas delegation had arrived in the Iranian capital Tehran on an official visit.
The GMBDW reported in January on what was described the “rapprochement” between Hamas and Iran following a three year breach. The GMBDW reported in October 2013 that that Hamas had succeeded in re-establishing close ties with Iran.
