Senior IRGC Official Accuses Hamas of Seeking Compromise with Israel

A senior commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and senior advisor to its commander has openly criticized the Palestinian movement Hamas, accusing its leaders of seeking compromise and agreements with Israel. Khosrow Arouj, advisor to Mohammad Ali Jafari, the IRGC's commander, made these remarks in an interview with the Mehr News Agency published on Saturday, July 9. Arouj stated, "We thought that Hamas had raised the banner of struggle to eliminate Israel, but now we see they are saying different things." He added, "Now, almost Hamas, the most recognized Palestinian fighting group, is negotiating with Israel in Turkey and wants to make multiple agreements with it." According to the senior IRGC advisor, "Hamas and Fatah sit in meetings and negotiate with those who have supported fake Islamic armies, like Turkey and Saudi Arabia; these countries cooperate with Israel at all levels." This senior commander's remarks likely refer to reports from Israeli media in recent days. These reports indicated that following the reconciliation between Israel and Turkey two weeks ago, the Ankara government is mediating between Hamas and Israel, including for the return of the bodies of two soldiers and two living Arab and Ethiopian Israeli citizens captured by Hamas in Gaza. Ismail Haniyeh, deputy head of Hamas's political bureau, stated in Gaza on Wednesday during Eid al-Fitr prayers that Hamas is not thinking of a new war with Israel but is seeking a new deal with Israel, albeit with conditions. According to Haniyeh, for a new deal with Israel, Israel must first release all security prisoners who were freed in the 2011 deal for the release of Gilad Shalit but were imprisoned again. Khosrow Arouj, in his interview with Mehr News Agency, also said, "Israel was established to always have a dagger behind the Islamic world; for this reason, Imam (Ayatollah Khomeini) was sensitive to this issue (the establishment of Israel) from the very beginning; Israel remains a dagger in the spine of the Islamic world." Brigadier General Khosrow Arouj also stated, "In the global community, there is a place that is an unfit patch, and that is Iran and the sacred thoughts of the Imam, and he says to have the destruction of Israel on the agenda and that this cancerous tumor must be eliminated; besides Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, Jordan, and the rulers of Yemen and Egypt are also the illegitimate offspring of the global community... the Great Satan, America, wants to connect Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt too..." The strong relationship between Hamas and the Islamic Republic soured shortly after the start of the Syrian civil war; Hamas, which emerged from the Muslim Brotherhood, supported some of the opposition groups in Syria and condemned Bashar al-Assad's government. However, in the past year, Hamas and Iran have made efforts to revive their previous relations, although reports about a senior Hamas delegation's visit to Iran did not materialize, and only mid-level figures from Hamas visited Iran on occasions such as the death of the mother of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the IRGC's Quds Force. This is while Hamas, during its cold relations with Iran, became very close to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. Israeli officials had previously stated that one of Israel's recent conditions for reconciliation with Hamas was that Hamas leaders refrain from acting against Israel from Turkey, and the senior Hamas official in Turkey, Saleh al-Arouri, has also been effectively expelled from Turkey. Recently, Iran invited Ramadan Abdullah Shalah, the Secretary-General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, to Tehran several times, where Shalah also met with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Eight days ago, Hamas refrained from holding Quds Day ceremonies in Gaza on the last Friday of Ramadan, while in contrast, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad invited some of its supporters to a rally. In this context, Fatah and Hamas blamed each other for the failure of the Doha negotiations.