Hamas says relations with Cairo have passed tense stage

A senior Hamas official said on Sunday that Ismail Haniyeh’s visit to Cairo is part of the movement’s policy to seek “good” and “balanced” relations with the Arab and Islamic world, Quds Press has reported.

“The visit to Cairo is the completion of several steps taken by the movement within a couple of months in the context of improving its relationship with Cairo,” explained Osama Hamdan. “Such a visit brings to an end the stagnation stage of relations between us during which suspicions were aroused by different sides aiming to connect Hamas to the security issues in Egypt.”

Hamas, insisted the movement’s senior official in Lebanon, has succeeded in passing the tense stage in its relations with the government in Cairo after demonstrating that accusations of interference in Egypt’s internal affairs are untrue. “Although we are still not at the desired level in our relationship,” he pointed out, “the visit by the head of the Hamas Political Bureau to Egypt represents a great development, regardless of the relations between us.”

He noted that the aim of the latest visit was to develop the relationship with Cairo and to carry out what was agreed upon during the previous visits of Hamas leaders to Egypt.

Haniyeh led a senior Hamas delegation from Gaza and went to Cairo on Saturday. It is his first visit since he was elected as the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement. On the agenda are several major issues, including mutual relations, mechanisms to ease the siege on the Gaza Strip and Palestinian reconciliation and unity.

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