Arabic Newspaper Says Hamas Opening Office In Cairo

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A London-based pan-Arab newspaper is reporting that the  Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has agreed to let Hamas open an office in eastern Cairo and establish a joint committee with Hamas to discuss issues of security along the Gaza-Egypt border. According to an Israeli media article citing the report

SEPTEMBER 12, 2012 Less than one year after closing its headquarters in Damascus, Hamas’s ‘outside’ leadership has found a new home in the Egyptian capital of Cairo. Hamas leaders are split between Gaza, where they took violent control in 2007, the West Bank, where they seek to gain control, and elsewhere in the region. London-based daily Al-Hayat reported Tuesday that Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood administration has agreed to open a Hamas office in eastern Cairo and establish a joint committee with Hamas to discuss issues of security along the Gaza-Egypt border. Hamas’s Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh will meet with his counterpart Hisham Kandil in Egypt on Thursday, the daily said.m Relations between Egypt and Hamas experienced a sharp decline after August 5 when gunmen attacked an Egyptian army outpost near the border, killing 16 Egyptian soldiers, before storming into Israel. Egypt blamed Gaza for allowing Islamist terrorists to cross over into Sinai unnoticed through smuggling tunnels along the border. Al-Hayat reported that the new security committee will exchange intelligence information regarding the border area. Prominent members of Hamas will be part of the new committee, including Ahmad Ja’abari, commander of the Al-Qassam Brigades (the movement’s military wing); Moussa Abu-marzouq; Bassem Na’im; and Ayman Taha, a security adviser to PM Ismail Haniyeh. During his visit to Cairo on Thursday, Haniyah will discuss the creation of a free trade zone near the Rafah Border Crossing and the connection of Gaza to a regional electric grid, rendering it independent of Israeli energy. In return, Al-Hayat reports, Hamas agreed to hand over a number of suspects in the August attack to Egypt.

This development, if confirmed, was foreshadowed by an earlier report that Hamas had been seeking even closer ties to the new government in Egypt:

JERUSALEM, Israel — Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh would like to strengthen ties with the new Islamist government in Egypt while diminishing ties with the ‘Zionist enemy.’ Egypt’s more than 30-year-old peace treaty has been on shaky ground since the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak last year. Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has alternately called for abrogating the treaty and promising to uphold it. Hamas has no ties with Israel. On Sunday, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi phoned Haniyeh to wish him well on Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan. The terror chief thanked Morsi for his support and told him security issues should be handled between ‘brothers,’ with Israel excluded. ‘Yes, we want security coordination with our brothers and strategic depth and not with the Zionist enemy,’ the Jerusalem Post quoted Haniyeh in Sunday’s speech.

A post from February 2012 reported that the Hamas political  leadership had left its long-time home in Syria

The Hamas charter states that it “is one of the wings of the Muslim Brothers in Palestine” and in July 2011, Egyptian Brotherhood leader Dr. Essam al-Arian acknowledged the relationship between the Brotherhood and Hamas stating “The Muslim Brotherhood Group as a public Islamic organization is the umbrella for many Islamist movements, including Hamas”  In June 2007,  a Hamas journalist acknowledged the role that the “international Muslim Brotherhood” has played in providing funds for the purchase of weapons for the organization.The Global Muslim Brotherhood supports Hamas through the Union of Good, a worldwide coalition of charities headed by Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi.

For more information on Moussa Abu-marzouq (aka Mousa Abu Marzook), a former leader in the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, go here.

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