Hamas to Hezbollah: Keep your weapons aimed at Israel
Published today (updated) 17/06/2013 19:43
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=605837

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Hamas on Monday called on Hezbollah to withdraw from
Syria and to keep its weapons aimed at Israel.

The Lebanese Shiite movement's involvement in the Syrian conflict has
increased sectarian strife in the region, Hamas said in a statement calling
for unity.

Hezbollah has dispatched its fighters to Syria to assist President Bashar
Assad's battle against mostly-Sunni rebel forces. Earlier this year,
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Syria's "friends," including Iran,
would not allow Assad's regime to fall.

Hamas expressed sympathy for the suffering and bloodshed in Syria, and
affirmed the Syrian people's right to freedom.

"The Syrian people has the right to realize their rights and aspirations for
freedom and dignity. This people has always been supportive to resistance
and resistance fighters," Hamas said.

The party urged Hezbollah to leave Syria and return to resisting Israel.

"The question of Palestine is the Arab and Muslim nations' central cause.
Resisting Israeli occupation is the main task and resistance must be on the
right track and in the right direction regardless of the circumstances,"
Hamas said.

On Friday Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas' prime minister in Gaza, denied reports that
militants from the Islamist group were engaged in training rebels fighting
Assad.

"There is no truth to (claims) that Hamas fighters are in Syria, although we
stand on the side of the Syrian people and condemn the brutal attacks they
are exposed to," Haniyeh said at a mosque in Rafah, on the border with
Egypt.

In June, Arab media reported that Hamas was strengthening its ties to
Hezbollah and Iran, both of whom support the Damascus regime, and that this
was causing internal strains.

Hamas leader Khalid Mashaal lived in exile in Syria until shortly after the
civil war began. When it did, Hamas refused to support Assad in his deadly
crackdown, and Mashaal moved to Qatar in 2012.

"This movement is loyal only to God, to this (Palestinian) people and to
this issue. It does not sell itself to its backers," Haniyeh said,
apparently in reference to aid it receives from Iran.

"There is no place for talk of the movement abandoning its resistance in
Palestine (in favor of) fighting in Syria."