Hamas Political Leader Visits Jordan; Accompanied By Former U.S. Muslim Brotherhood Leader

globalmbreport.org ^ | 1-30-12 | GlobalMB

[bayouranger]

U.S. media is reporting on the visit to Jordan by Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal, accompanied by former U.S. Muslim Brotherhood leader Abu Marzook. According to an AP report:

Associated Press AMMAN, Jordan (AP) – A high-profile visit to Jordan by the leader of Hamas has revived contacts with the Palestinian militant group, but Jordan will not lift a ban on its activities there, a senior Jordanian official said Sunday. Khaled Mashaal’s visit was part of Jordan’s efforts to engage with previously shunned Islamists, who have been gaining ground across the region in Arab Spring uprisings. ”It will only break the ice, following years of estrangement,” said the official, who was attending talks between Khaled Mashaal and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, “but Hamas will not be allowed to reopen its offices in Jordan.” Re-establishing contact with Hamas also positions Jordan to mediate between Israel and the Palestinians. Mashaal holds a Jordanian passport, but the kingdom expelled him and four other Hamas leaders in 1999 for “illicit and harmful” activities, forcing Mashaal to set up camp in exile in Syria, from where he has led his group’s political bureau. With the harsh Syrian government crackdown on protesters- including some Palestinians in Syria- Mashaal is looking for a new place to operate. Jordan blacklisted Hamas after an alleged weapons cache was discovered in the country six years ago. Since then, Mashaal was allowed to enter Jordan twice on humanitarian grounds- in August 2009 to attend his father’s funeral, and again last October to visit his ailing mother. Speaking to reporters after the meeting on Sunday, Mashaal said Hamas was eager to develop “close and unique relations” with Jordan. He suggested more meetings could follow. ”Hamas also cares for Jordan’s security and stability,” he said. Mashaal also acknowledged “limits and ceilings” in the relationship, which he said Hamas “respects,” but he did not say if the group asked the king to reopen its offices here. Jordanian officials said the matter was not raised. The visit was arranged by the crown prince of Qatar, which is helping Hamas find a new home. Hamas, which took over the Gaza Strip violently in 2007, opposes a peace deal with Israel. Jordan, a key U.S. Mideast ally, has a signed peace treaty with Israel. It strongly advocates a negotiated settlement to the lingering Arab-Israeli conflict. A revival of contacts with Hamas would also allow Jordan to mediate between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the moderate Fatah faction and Hamas- his arch foe since 2007. Egypt has been trying to broker an agreement between both sides. Jordan hosted five meetings between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators this month in a bid to have them restart their peace talks. Jordanian Prime Minister Awn al-Khasawneh repeatedly said that expelling Mashaal was a “legal and constitutional mistake which must be corrected.”

In 2008, the NEFA Foundation posted a court filing by federal prosecutors which provided detail on the role of Mr. Marzook as a leader of the United States-based Muslim Brotherhood and Palestinian Committee. According to the document:

By the outbreak of the First Intifada, the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States was significant and well organized. In 1987, the governing body of the International Muslim Brotherhood decided to focus its mission on the Palestinian issue, and directed that Palestine Committees be formed in countries throughout the world. In the United States, the Palestine Committee was comprised of active Muslim Brotherhood members of Palestinian origin. The leader of the Palestinian Committee in the United States at that time was unindicted co-conspirator Mousa Abu Marzook. Marzook is now – and has been since 1995 – a Specially Designated Terrorist and Hamas leader. In fact, in the early 1990s, Marzook left his post as a leader of the United States-based Muslim Brotherhood and Palestinian Committee to take over as Hamas’ Political Bureau Chief, the organization’s highest official position. The creation and growth of the Palestine Committee in the United States are evidenced in part by documents that the government seized in 2004 from the Virginia home of unindicted co-conspirator and Palestinian Committee member Ismail Elbarasse. As shown by those documents and other evidence, the Muslim Brotherhood directed its Palestinian Committees throughout the world, including the United States, to carry out the mandate of assisting Sheik Yassin and his newly-formed Hamas Movement. In accordance with that mandate, the Palestinian Committee in the United States, which included the defendants Elashi, Baker and El-Mezain, oversaw a number of sub- organizations charged with varying missions calculated to comprehensively address Hamas’ needs. These organizations included the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR) (“think tank”), the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP) (propaganda and information) and the Occupied Land Fund (OLF) (money), later to become the defendant HLF. The defendant Shukri Abu Baker was in charge of the HLF and, along with the defendants El-Mezain and Elashi, set out to establish what would become the highest grossing Islamic charity in the United States.

It should be noted that the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) grew directly out of the IAP and Hamas infrastructure in the U.S.

It should also be noted that according to the AP article, the visit by Mr. Meshall and Mr. Marzook was arranged by Qatar which is emerging as perhaps the preeminent Mideast center for the Global Muslim Brotherhood. A series of earlier posts covered the launch of a new center for Islamic studies in Qatar to be headed by Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Tariq Ramadan and a close associated of Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi who resides in Qatar.

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[Cindy]

http://www.investigativeproject.org/topics/60/hamas
http://www.investigativeproject.org/topics/21/mousa-abu-marzook

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http://www.investigativeproject.org/3547/marzook-no-recognition-no-permanent-peace

The Record - The IPT Blog

“Marzook: No Recognition, No Permanent Peace”
by IPT News • Apr 20, 2012 at 6:47 pm

SNIPPET: “Hamas’ deputy politburo chief and former U.S. Muslim Brotherhood branch leader told The Forward this week that his group would view any agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority as more of a hudna—or cease-fire—than a peace treaty in the conventional sense of the word.

“We will not recognize Israel as a state,” and any agreement should be seen as paving the way for a relationship similar to that of “Lebanon and Israel or Syria and Israel” rather than one of mutual recognition, trade, and the like, Mousa Abu Marzook said.

This would hold true for Hamas even if the agreement was ratified by a popular “referendum of all Palestinians” he said during a five-and-a-half hour interview with the Jewish-American newspaper.”