Hamas denies mediating between Saudi and MB in Yemen

Senior Hamas leader Izzat Al-Rishq yesterday denied that the group’s chief, Khalid Meshaal, is mediating between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Muslim Brotherhood group, PLS48.net said.

On Saturdays, the Anadolu Agency reported informed sources claiming that Saudi Arabia asked Meshaal to be a mediator.

In a statement, Al-Rishq said: “Information of this kind is completely baseless… Such information causes regional tensions and spoils Hamas’s political relations at this stage.”

Many Arab and world capitals, including Riyadh, consider the Shia Houthi rebels’ armed control of a number of Yemeni cities, including the capital Sanaa, a coup against President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who fled to Aden.

On Sunday, during a discussion panel in Gaza, senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar said that there is a “prospective visit for Meshaal to Saudi Arabia”. He also stressed: “Hamas is keen to maintain good relations with Saudi Arabia.”

Al-Zahar said that any new information about Meshaal’s visit to Saudi Arabia would be announced. If this visit happened, it would be the first of its kind since June 2012.

In addition, Al-Zahar said: “Saudi leads the Gulf in addition to being a large country in the region. It is seeking good relations with Hamas because of the political changes in the region as well as because of the control of the Houthi rebels of Yemen.”

Relations between Hamas and Saudi Arabia are not “perfect” because, journalists claim, of the connection between Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, while observers claim that Hamas’s rapprochement with Iran is the reason behind Saudi’s “worries” regarding Hamas.