TEHRAN, Iran \u2014\u00a0Last week, Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader\u00a0Ramadan Abdullah Shalah, a close ally of Tehran, visited the Qatari capital of Doha to meet his ally and comrade Khaled Meshaal, the leader of Hamas,\u00a0according to sources close to Shalah.<\/p>\n
It is rare that someone like Shalah visits Doha, given the tight security measures that lead his movements to be well-tracked and detailed.\u00a0Hence, he went only after receiving his Iranian allies\u2019 blessings.<\/p>\n
In Doha,\u00a0Shalah and Meshaal discussed the latter\u2019s forthcoming trip to Tehran, a long-anticipated\u00a0visit delayed by the\u00a0wait for\u00a0Tehran to extend an invitation. The hurdle in pinpointing a\u00a0date has been attributed to setting an appointment for a meeting with Iran\u2019s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.<\/p>\n
An Iranian official told\u00a0Al-Monitor\u00a0<\/em>that the visit is expected to take place after\u00a0the Persian New Year (Nowroz), although the exact\u00a0timing is still to be confirmed. Another Iranian source explained that all the details have been sorted with Hamas since summer 2013. He added,\u00a0\u201cUp to\u00a0this moment, more than eight delegations from Hamas have visited Tehran. Political, military and social delegations were welcomed and always are. The issue of Mr. Meshaal was personal and more complicated. Now it\u2019s almost resolved.\u201d<\/p>\n A senior Hamas\u00a0official\u00a0who\u00a0met with\u00a0Al-Monitor\u00a0<\/em>in Tehran last week confirmed that the visit is indeed on the agenda. He asserted,\u00a0\u201cOur relationship with Iran is back as it was, and maybe better. Enemies who are betting on the end of the resistance bloc should know that this bloc is getting bigger and stronger, from North Africa to Tehran.\u201d<\/p>\n Osama Hamdan, Hamas\u2019 international relations officer, explained that the \u201cunfortunate\u201d disagreement\u00a0on Syria is on the road to being resolved and that positive options are on the table with respect to his organization’s relations with Damascus. Hamdan added that ties with Hezbollah are good and that he continues to carry out his work from his office in Beirut\u2019s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah\u00a0stronghold.<\/p>\n Another Palestinian resistance official, who spoke with\u00a0Al-Monitor<\/em>\u00a0on condition of anonymity, said that\u00a0efforts to reorganize the region\u2019s two blocs are taking place on both sides. \u201cThe Saudis are restructuring their post-Arab Spring alliances, reviving the ‘moderate bloc’\u00a0of Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, Bahrain, UAE [United Arab Emirates]\u00a0and others, and the Iranians are rebuilding their ‘resistance and resilience bloc’\u00a0that was brought together before 2011\u00a0\u2014 Syria, Qatar, Turkey,\u00a0and the resistances in Lebanon and Palestine,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cThe new blocs on both sides will shape the new post-Arab Spring era in the Middle East. On\u00a0both sides there are [internal]\u00a0differences on certain issues, but still there is one issue that brings each bloc together.\u201d<\/p>\n According to this source, the Qatari emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al\u00a0Thani,\u00a0is at a moment of decision. He has\u00a0to think of Qatar\u2019s national security before thinking of Syria\u2019s. The source contended, \u201cDoha is working on getting things [back] on the old track, and they\u2019re ending all their commitments to groups in Syria. The differences on President [Bashar al-] Assad\u2019s future will probably be left for the Syrian people to decide.\u201d<\/p>\n The latest\u00a0developments in the Gulf\u00a0have led many to rethink their strategies\u00a0but\u00a0not their tactics, he said. \u201cThe Saudis are doing what Iran couldn\u2019t do. They continued to pressure Qatar until it\u2019s now on very good terms with Tehran. The same applies to Turkey, which is already today a very strong ally of Iran,\u201d he added.\u00a0\u201cPutting Palestine at the head of the list of\u00a0priorities\u00a0can help in bridging the gaps. That\u2019s why today\u00a0Hamas and Islamic Jihad\u00a0are playing an important role in political reconciliation within the bloc \u2014 today in Tehran and tomorrow maybe in Damascus.\u201d<\/p>\n Getting back to Shalah\u2019s visit to Qatar,\u00a0Al-Monitor<\/em>\u00a0learned that the Islamic\u00a0Jihad\u00a0leader met Emir Tamim and his influential adviser and\u00a0former Israeli Knesset member,\u00a0Azmi Bishara, who is working on launching\u00a0a new media network that includes a London-based TV operation, newspaper\u00a0and a\u00a0Beirut-based website under the name Al-Arabi al-Jadeed (The New Arab). The network, according to sources in Doha, has\u00a0a big budget and is expected to promote the new, post-Arab Spring image of Qatar. It will be different from the one that Al Jazeera once projected as being\u00a0light on Islam\u00a0and more liberal, with a leftist touch. The new network, expected to start gradually, is not meant to replace Al Jazeera\u00a0but to present a new voice representing\u00a0the emir’s vision.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n