Khaled Mashal: I Will No Longer Run for Hamas Leadership

Khaled Mashal, the head of Hamas's political bureau, confirmed that he will not run for this position again and will step down after internal elections to determine the leadership of the Palestinian movement. In recent months, reports had emerged about Mashal's intention not to run in the internal Hamas elections, but this was the first time he publicly expressed his desire to step down from Hamas leadership at a ceremony. According to news agencies, Khaled Mashal stated on Saturday night, September 24, during a speech to Hamas members in Doha, Qatar, 'Just as Ismail Haniyeh is the former prime minister of Hamas, I too will soon be a former leader.' The internal elections of Hamas will be held in the first half of 2017. Hamas was founded 28 years ago in the fall. Ismail Haniyeh, currently Mashal's deputy, is mentioned as the most important candidate for the presidency of the political bureau in the upcoming elections. Haniyeh, who was the former prime minister of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, traveled to Saudi Arabia under the pretext of attending Hajj last month and has not returned from there yet. Since Haniyeh's departure from Gaza, there have been conflicting reports about his return. Haniyeh's family and some Hamas members have expressed 'confidence' that he will return to Gaza. A group of Palestinian analysts say that Haniyeh's residence in Gaza, following his rise to political leadership in Hamas, will strengthen the political branch of the movement against its military branch, which operates from Gaza, compared to the period of Mashal's leadership over this branch. However, Haniyeh, who has lived in Gaza all his life, does not have extensive connections with Arab and Islamic leaders like Khaled Mashal and Mousa Abu Marzouk. Although Hamas dissolved its government in Gaza and accepted a national unity government, it still practically holds power in Gaza, and the Palestinian Authority has been unable to take over the administration of Gaza. Hamas is confident that in a general election in Gaza and the West Bank, it will oust Fatah and its 80-year-old leader Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas's influence in the West Bank has recently increased, and Hamas considered the recent Palestinian court ruling regarding the suspension of council elections as stemming from Fatah's fear of defeat. Khaled Mashal, 60 years old, born in the West Bank, is a physics graduate from Kuwait University and was a senior member of the Palestinian Student Union in the 1970s. Since the assassination of Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, another Hamas leader, by Israel 12 years ago, Mashal has held the presidency of Hamas's political branch. Mashal was initially the representative of Hamas in Kuwait in 1987 and has lived in Jordan since 1991 because the Israeli government labeled Hamas as terrorist and announced its policy to eliminate Hamas leaders and members in retaliation for dozens of deadly bombings in Israeli cities. In 1997, Israeli Mossad attempted to kill Khaled Mashal by injecting poison into his ear while he was walking down the street in Amman, the capital of Jordan. As Mashal approached death, King Hussein of Jordan, who had just signed a peace treaty with Israel, became furious with Israel and threatened to annul the peace treaty if Israel did not send an antidote for Mashal immediately. On that day, Mossad saved Mashal's life by sending the antidote to a Jordanian hospital, and Jordan released Mossad commandos who had been arrested in Jordan, some of whom held Canadian passports. Despite being saved by the insistence of the then-King Hussein, he expelled Mashal in 1999 on charges of attempting to harm Jordan's security. Recently, Khaled Mashal has faced criticism from other factions within Hamas for his softening of certain views, including suggesting that the phrase 'Palestine from the river to the sea' might change, implying a place for the existence of Israel. Mashal also faced the wrath of the Syrian government and Iran for deciding not to intervene in the Syrian war in favor of Bashar al-Assad. Syria expelled him and sealed Hamas offices, and relations between Hamas and Iran have practically cooled in recent years. In recent years, Mashal has lived in Doha, Qatar, has drawn closer to Saudi Arabia, and has met with the Saudi king. His distancing from Iran has been criticized by figures such as Mahmoud al-Zahar, former foreign minister of Hamas in Gaza, who has always sought to bring Hamas closer to Iran. However, Ismail Haniyeh, a strong candidate for Hamas's political leadership, has also supported Syrian opposition. In this context, the second ship carrying humanitarian aid from Turkey to Gaza has been dispatched. Israel's reaction to the possibility of removing Hamas from the list of terrorists, 'The Islamic Republic's letter to Mahmoud Abbas' regarding a meeting with Maryam Rajavi, and the Revolutionary Guards rejected their advisor's statements about Hamas.