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Qatar ties to Hamas could spell chaos

Doha's support of the Hamas is detrimental to all

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Today's young Arabs will have many stories to narrate about a bothersome neighbouring nation which went about hatching conspiracies and funding terrorism for over 20 years. They will talk about how that nation cozied up to an unholy anti-Arab alliance, how it played against its sisterly countries, how it manipulated the rest of the GCC countries and how it hosted insidious terror groups on its soil. Arabs will also recall how the quartet - Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt - gave this nation many a chance to return to the fold, and how they put a stop to its dangerous agenda.

Many instances of this nation, which is Qatar, supporting terror groups thereby giving them a free hand to flourish on its soil and endangering the sovereignty of the region will be recounted to the coming generations.

Doha's support of the Hamas is detrimental to all. The free hand given to Hamas in Qatar was referred to by Hamas top leader Khalid Misha'al in an interview on Al Jazeera TV. Wherever Hamas leaders have landed, there has been destruction and chaos. Gaza, Tunisia and Syria are glaring examples.

Hamas leaders have tried to manipulate Arab-Muslim sentiments by playing the Palestinian card. And it has been trying to get as many countries under its fold. Even as top Hamas leaders flew to Tehran when Hassan Rohani assumed office as president, Saleh Al Arouri was meeting Iranians in Lebanon where Hezbollah leaders had gained a foothold. This is the formula of the Muslim Brotherhood which follows the state of the Faqih (Iran) as an example of ideology and organisation to prevail.

At the same time, Qatar played a double game by bowing to US-Israeli pressures and expelling Saleh Al Arouri, senior Hamas military operative and leader and supposedly the Hamas' military commander in the West Bank, after he was believed by Israeli intelligence officials to have planned the kidnap and murder of three Jewish teens in the West Bank in the summer of 2014. Now the expelled leader along with others are on the lookout for refuge and their options are Lebanon, Turkey or Algeria, once more making evident the cohesion and solidarity between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Iranian model, and how they support each other against the Arab countries.

However, their plots have been foiled and Hamas soon realised its tactics would not go a long way. It then decided to go slow and declared the new Hamas Charter on May 1 in Doha. This charter which for the first time accepted the idea of a Palestinian state within the borders that existed before 1967 at the same time rejects recognition of Israel. The new document stressed that the group doesn't seek war with the Jewish people but only against Zionism which it holds responsible for the 'occupation of Palestine'.

Hamas is aware that the Arab masses have realised its real aim is to dominate and control communities by distorting religion, and it succeeded in influencing one member of the GCC. Hamas quells any real example for a civil state, but thrives on countries like Iran, and now Turkey, which under Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has thrown 100,000 civilians in jail under the pretext of hatching a plot against the government. One wonders if they are striving to create another Hafez Al Assad or Saddam Hussein by silencing and gagging voices that call for civil freedom.

malzarooni@khaleejtimes.com