Despite threats from Iran to withdraw financial aid and
training for militants, Hamas has now
reportedly ordered the majority of its staff
in Damascus to evacuate the organization’s headquarters by next
week, aiming to leave behind only a “nominal presence” in Syria,
which has hosted Hamas since the group was expelled from Jordan in
the late 1990s. This latest move from Hamas comes amid a gradual
divestment of Syrian assets over the past few months.
More importantly, Hamas has undertaken the decision to
evacuate Syria under pressure from Turkey and Qatar, both of which
are leading support for the Syrian National Council (SNC) that is
currently dominated by Sunni Islamists. Meanwhile, Turkey is
helping to smuggle arms to the Free Syrian Army, whereas Qatar was
the first nation in the Gulf area to close its embassy in Damascus
back in July, and is likewise reportedly supplying weapons to
Syrian rebels.
Although Saudi Arabia and other Arab League members
(except Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon) have joined in the condemnation
of Assad’s conduct and Syria’s membership in the Arab League has
accordingly been suspended, Qatar’s stance stands out amongst Arab
states as far more proactive and much more along the lines of
present Turkish policy towards Syria.
Of course, Qatar has further been influential in drawing
Arab public attention to Assad’s crackdown on protesters in Syria
via al-Jazeera broadcasts, with well-known Islamist cleric Yusuf
al-Qaradawi, who has his own show on the channel, calling on
Assad to step down because he was supposedly being
“held prisoner by his entourage and the [Alawite] sect.”
We find a similar active approach on the part of Turkey
and Qatar regarding Libya, albeit differing to a certain degree.
The two countries backed the anti-Gaddafi forces during the civil
war. Turkey played an important part in enforcing an arms embargo
on ports controlled by the Gaddafi forces, as well as in
implementing the no-fly zone.
While Qatar similarly participated in enforcing the no-fly
zone, the Gulf state also sent troops as military advisors for
rebel forces, and frequently held meetings with officials from the
National Transitional Council (NTC). Again, there is a contrast
with the more reserved approach of Saudi Arabia and most other Arab
League states, although it should be pointed out that the United
Arab Emirates deployed a dozen aircraft to assist in the NATO-led
mission against Gaddafi’s regime.
In the aftermath of the overthrow of Gaddafi, Turkey and
Qatar have also attempted to increase their influence in Libya, but
Turkey’s methods have been more subtle and welcomed. Qatar has been
circumventing the NTC to provide support for Islamist militias that
are operating independently of the NTC’s control. Hence, the NTC
has rebuked Qatar for excessive interference in internal affairs on
more than one occasion.
On the other hand, Turkey has sought to gain a foothold in
Libya by cultivating cultural and educational ties for the moment.
Thus, Turkey has offered to
renovate and restore a prominent Ottoman-era
mosque in Libya. The interim Libyan government is
also seeking Turkish help to train schoolteachers and
rewrite school textbooks to portray Ottoman
Islamic rule over the area in a positive light. Accordingly, the
Minister of Education Suleiman Sahili declared in a recent
interview, “We want to see Turkey on our soil once
more.”
Incidentally, Today’s Zaman (the English-language
Turkish daily),which noted Turkey’s initiative to renovate and
restore an Ottoman-era mosque in Libya, also reported on a request
from Gaza to the Turkish government for assistance in
reconstructing several mosques. That Qatar and Turkey share
sympathy for Hamas is undeniable. The joint pressure on Hamas to
evacuate Syria has already been noted.
Going further back, the Turkish Prime Minister
Erdogan
has defended Hamas from charges of being a
terrorist organization, and is allegedly planning to
provide $300 million for the group, while
Qatar attempted to
hold a summit in Doha in the immediate aftermath
of Operation Cast Lead in support of Hamas.
Furthermore, al-Jazeera tried to undermine the Palestinian
Authority (PA) and bolster Hamas by releasing the “Palestine
Papers,” which, on a side note, exposed the inconsistency of the
PA’s public and private stances regarding negotiations with
Israel.
The Palestine Papers showed that in private PA officials
appeared to be willing to discuss compromises on matters like the
“right of return,” but when this detail was made public, the PA
angrily denied that such discussions had taken place. The affair
thus illustrated how the PA is still failing to make an active
effort to cultivate an attitude of reconciliation among the
Palestinian population at large by means of media and
education.
In any case, the emerging picture appears to be one of a
new Sunni bloc led by Qatar and Turkey, currently including Hamas
as a member. It is evident that this bloc is in opposition to the
Iranian-led “resistance” axis that includes Syria and Hezbollah.
More of a gray area is how this bloc will relate to Saudi Arabia,
which has since Gaddafi’s fall followed a “hands-off” policy
towards Libya and is, as we have seen, more reserved in its
approach towards Syria.
On three counts, the interests of this bloc and those of
Saudi Arabia have overlapped. First, there is the common opposition
to Iran. Second, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have deployed troops in
Bahrain to suppress predominantly Shi’a protests against the Sunni
minority regime, while Turkey (like al-Jazeera’s Arabic channel)
has more or less kept a diplomatic silence on the issue. Third, in
eastern Saudi Arabia, where security forces have cracked down on
Shi’a protests, Turkey and Qatar have refrained from condemnation,
and al-Jazeera’s coverage is clearly biased against the
demonstrations. In both cases, the protests have been portrayed as
Iranian plots to stir up trouble.
Thus, the relationship between Saudi Arabia and this
Turkey-Qatar bloc could be described as ambivalent at
present.
Observers would therefore do well to watch closely the
evolving situation in Egypt. With Islamists on the rise in that
country, it is possible that new tensions will emerge between Saudi
Arabia and the Turkey-Qatar bloc, especially since the former has
for a long time supported the status-quo of military rule that
existed under Hosni Mubarak, who maintained very close ties with
the Saudis, while Qatar and Turkey might throw their weight behind
a dismantling of military rule and a transition to a government
potentially dominated by Islamists.
