Analyst: Fatah seeks closer ties with Iran

Political analyst Dr Adnan Abu Amer believes that the recent rapprochement between Fatah and the Islamic Republic of Iran comes as a result to Fatah’s desire to reinforce its regional alliances in order to help the movement in expanding its political options.

Abu Amer added, in an interview with Safa news agency on Thursday, that there have been years of estrangement between the two sides due to Fatah’s involvement in the settlement project, but in recent months, Fatah has been welcomed as a guest in Syria, Hamas’s former closest ally.

On the first visit for a Fatah official to Tehran since the signing of the Oslo agreement, Jibril Al-Rajoub, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee, met with the Iranian Foreign Minister and a number of officials. Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper also mentioned, on Thursday, that Tehran intends to send a formal invitation to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to visit Iran, in the context of strengthening Iranian-Palestinian relations.

Abu Amer explained that Fatah has a desire to fill the vacuum caused by the quarrel between Hamas, Iran and Syria following Hamas’s position towards developments in Syria, in particular.

He added that Fatah will not be part of Iran’s regional alliances like Hamas, but the movement nevertheless has a desire to take advantage of the prevailing quarrel with Hamas’s former allies in an attempt accumulate more political choices and multiply its regional friends.

Tehran fell out with Hamas after the movement withdrew its leadership from Damascus to the Qatari capital Doha. Hamas had refrained from issuing statements supporting the Syrian regime following the deterioration of the on-going conflict in Syria.

Abu Amer pointed out that the Iranian-American nuclear agreement has made Iran back off from supporting the resistance movement at this stage, noting that Fatah is now attempting to exploit this matter in its favour.

“Fatah is trying to take advantage of any ambiguity in the region to establish new alliances, even though yesterday Iran was called a Shi’ite state wanting to take over the Arab region,” he observed.

Abu Amer added that Fatah wants to build its regional relations without approaching or moving away from its ideological and intellectual principles. The movement bases its relationships and alliances on political interests, trying to adopt a political rule of “no permanent enemies or permanent friends; but rather permanent interests.”

He argued that this is beyond all dispute a political manoeuvre, calling on Hamas to carefully read Fatah’s behaviour through re-reading its own regional alliances.

The Fatah movement, through numerous statements issued by its leaders and spokespersons, had previously accused Iran of being the one who decides for Hamas, while criticising the close relations between them. Among these statements was the one made by Azzam Al-Ahmad, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee, during a press conferences when he accused Iran of trying to “sabotage” the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas.