Gaza City – Haniyeh said that Hamas sought to bolster Palestinian-Egyptian relations, denying that his group had ever attempted to interfere in Egypt’s domestic affairs
Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Tuesday ruled out the possibility that Egypt would designate his Hamas movement as a “terrorist” group as it did last week to Egypt’s own Muslim Brotherhood.
“We have ruled out [the possibility] that Egypt would declare a Palestinian liberation movement like Hamas a ‘terrorist’ group,” Haniyeh said at a media conference in Gaza City.
He added that Hamas sought to bolster Palestinian-Egyptian relations, denying that his group had ever attempted to interfere in Egypt’s domestic affairs.
“Egypt’s security is our security,” Haniyeh said. “We can’t do without Egypt and Egypt can’t do without us.”
Relations between Hamas – an ideological offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood – and Egypt’s new military-backed rulers have deteriorated since the July 3 ouster of elected president Mohamed Morsi, a Brotherhood leader himself, at the hands of the army.
Egypt’s pro-army media accuses Hamas of “interfering in Egypt’s internal affairs” and providing clandestine support to the Brotherhood – claims strenuously denied by both the Brotherhood and Hamas.
Last week, the Egyptian government officially designated the Brotherhood a “terrorist” organization. The move came one day after a deadly bombing struck a Nile Delta security building, killing 16 people, mostly policemen.
The Brotherhood strenuously denied any involvement in the attack, for which a shadowy militant group – Ansar Beit al-Maqdis – subsequently declared responsibility.
According to an Egyptian security source, the Brotherhood’s new terrorist label means that Gaza-based Hamas must either abandon its historical ties with Egypt’s Brotherhood or risk a similar fate.
But speaking on Tuesday, Haniyeh dismissed such a scenario, stressing that no party could force Hamas to “disavow its ideology, history or roots.”
