Senior Saudi officials were planning to meet with leaders of the Palestinian militant and political group Hamas to discuss renewing diplomatic ties which have been cool since 2007, part of a diplomacy spree led by Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman that has seen Riyadh move closer to Iran.
Re-establishing ties between Iran-backed Hamas, which is a US designated terrorist group, and the Saudi kingdom would mark a setback for efforts by Washington and Israel to establish a military alliance between Israel and other Sunni-majority countries against Iran and its allies. They also complicate Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s goal of normalising relations with Riyadh, with opposition to Iran as their primary shared interest.
Hamas was invited to the kingdom by Saudi leaders, Hamas officials said. Senior officials were expected to land in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Monday, the officials said. The effort to re-establish ties is being pushed by Iran and Syria, said Saudi officials.
As part of the talks, Hamas officials hope to free scores of Palestinian prisoners held in Saudi Arabia who were imprisoned when the two sides were at odds.
“We seek relations with all forces in the region and the world, and we have no enmity toward anyone, except for the Zionist enemy,” tweeted Mousa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas official who was to attend the meeting.
Hamas, which has fought several wars with Israel, fell out of favour with Riyadh in 2007 after it violently wrestled control of the Gaza Strip from rival Palestinian faction Fatah, which controls the US-backed Palestinian Authority. Hamas’s growing ties with Iran further weakened its relationship with Riyadh, which also looked askance at Hamas for being an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, a movement Riyadh has often viewed as a threat.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is also planning to visit Jeddah this week and will meet the crown prince on his trip, according to Saudi and Palestinian officials.
While Saudi Arabia was once a strong backer of the Palestinian Authority, its aid to Ramallah has declined in recent years.
Ties between the two sides have deteriorated as the kingdom grew closer to Israel and allied itself with the Trump administration, which often clashed with the Palestinian leadership.
Eventually brokering a reconciliation deal between Palestinian factions is a longer-term goal for the Crown Prince. Multiple previous efforts at brokering a reconciliation between Palestinian factions, including by Riyadh, have failed over disagreements on elections, which haven’t taken place since 2006, and whether Hamas can keep its own military.
