Damascus: The Hamas delegation arrived in Damascus on Wednesday for talks with President Bashar Assad, the first visit by a Hamas delegation since the Palestinian Islamic organization broke ties with Syria ten years ago.
One of Assad's closest allies, Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, left Syria in 2012 after condemning the government's brutal suppression of peaceful protests in March 2011, leading to civil war in the nation.
According to the leader of the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front, Khalid Abdel Majeed, the Palestinian faction will meet Assad during the Hamas delegation's two-day visit.
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The meeting at 1:30 pm (1030 GMT) will be followed by a news conference. In an effort to mend a 15-year rift, the Islamist movement last week signed a reconciliation deal with its Palestinian rival Fatah in Algiers. A Hamas delegation led by the Director of Arab Relations, Khalil al-Haya, is now in the region.
Additionally, it follows Hamas' declaration that it wanted to resume ties with Damascus, driven by "the rapid regional and global developments surrounding our cause and our country".
Analysts believed this was a reference to a growing number of Arab governments that have recently normalized relations with Hamas' main enemy, Israel.
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Hamas wants to reopen its office in Damascus, but a leader of the group said it was "too early" to discuss moving the organization's headquarters to the Syrian capital.
According to a senior Hamas source, Tehran and the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah planned a ceasefire between Hamas and Damascus.
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Syrian officials have been accusing Hamas of betrayal for the past ten years. The organization has its roots in the global Muslim Brotherhood, whose Syrian branch was a major player in the armed opposition when the civil war first broke out.
Hamas officials have said he severed ties with the Brotherhood in 2017.
