Hamas leader cancels visit to Tehran after IRGC expressed its displeasure

Those days are gone

Earlier this month, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar told Hezbollah TV that Hamas is ready to re-establish relationships with Iran.

It is clearly eager to resume the level of monetary support that it used to have before the Syrian war when Hamas sided with the Sunni Arabs against the Bashar Assad.

Following that, Hamas "political" leader Khaled Meshal announced that he would be  visiting Iran later this month to help this rapprochement. This caused anger among many Hamas supporters who are horrified by Iran and Syria's murder of hundreds of thousands and there was talk that this could lead to a split in Hamas.

Last week, Iran's Revolutionary Guards published a withering attack on Hamas' new desire for re-establishing relations as they were in the past. Writing in IRGC website Tabnak, former IRGC leadercurrent Secretary General of the Expediency Council Mohsen Rezai said,"Khaled Meshaal and Hamas leaders stood and lined up two years ago, along with international terrorists in Syria, demanding the destruction of the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, and we see them now trying to set the terms for the return of relations between Hamas and Iran, and if Iran does not have any conditions!..."Hamas today is not in a position to set conditions for the return of the course of their relationship with Tehran, and Iran is not in the habit to rely on any party after they revealed their true mettle."

Now comes the news that Meshal has "postponed" his visit to Tehran indefinitely. Besides Iran's antipathy, sources said that Hamas didn't want to endanger its relations with the new Saudi king who might be upset at Hamas cozying up to its enemy.

Iran has kept its relationship with Islamic Jihad in Gaza, still providing plenty of cash. It is not out of the question that Iran is grooming that terror group to take over Gaza from a weakened Hamas as part of its larger strategy to become the Muslim superpower.