Hamas looking to mend ties with Saudi Arabia, Jordan amid Assad normalisation

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the Gaza-based group is trying to mend relations with Saudi Arabia, but there are parties that are stopping this from happening.

Haniyeh said in an interview with Russia Today on Thursday that Hamas has been working on to restoring ties with Saudi Arabia and Jordan after the group re-established diplomatic ties with the Syrian regime.

He said, however, that there are parties working to prevent this from taking place, but did not mention who.

Haniyeh urged that Hamas is only looking to create diplomatic channels and will stay away from the politics of the countries they have relations with.

Last month, Hamas denied a report by Lebanese outlet Al-Mayadeen that negotiations were taking place with Saudi Arabia to release its detainees that have been in Saudi prisons since 2019.

In 2019, Saudi authorities detained around 68 Palestinians and Jordanians living in the kingdom, accusing them of providing support to Hamas.

Among the detainees is 83-year-old Mohammed Al-Khudari, previously Hamas' representative to Saudi Arabia.

At the time, a Hamas representative denied the reports.

Speaking to The New Arab, Hazem Qassem, spokesperson of the Islamist group, said that "the report is fabricated and baseless."

"Hamas believes that it gets its power in resisting the Israeli occupation from the Arab and Islamic depth," he added, further pointing out that his movement establishes its relations with the Islamic and Arab countries based on mutual respect. 

"We (Palestinians) have our main issue of liberating our lands from the Israeli occupation by all means in a bid to establish our state of Palestine on our lands," he said.  

The spokesperson called on Al-Mayadeen's administration "to report accurately and truthfully stories and not to rely on untrusted sources that aim to defame the Palestinian struggle and resistance, mainly the Hamas movement".