Islamist media is reporting that the US has asked Turkey to put “pressure” on Hamas in order to reduce tension and violence. The report also says that Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal recently attended another annual conference of the ruling Turkish AKP Party and met with the Turkish Prime Minister:
Hamas
The US has asked Turkey to put pressure on the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in order to ‘reduce tensions and prevent violence’ in the occupied territories. A spokesman for the US state department said that the matter has been raised at senior levels with the government in Ankara.
According to Jeff Rathke, the US continues to raise concerns about the relationship between Hamas and Turkey with senior officials, most recently after the visit of Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal. ‘We take Hamas as a terrorist organisation very seriously… That is why we express our concerns to Turkey when things such as this happen,’ he said.
Meshaal visited Turkey last Saturday and met Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Konya. The Hamas leader attended the annual conference of the ruling Development and Justice Party. The Palestinian and Turkish officials discussed various common issues, including humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip and the ongoing Israeli escalation in occupied Jerusalem.
The GMBDW reported in 2012 that Meshaal had attended that year’s annual AKP conference.
A 2011 report report authored by the GMBDW editor concluded that since 2006, Turkey has become a new center for the Global Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. In 2011, we reported that then Turkish Prime Minister Receb Tayyip Erdogan had sent a letter to the Hamas Prime Minister inviting him to visit Turkey and pledging $300 million to the Hamas government. Last month, the GMBDW reported on that Israel had arrested dozens of members of a Hamas terror network said to be funded and directed by Hamas officials in Turkey.
