A revealing interview was published Friday (Feb. 25) in the Islamist daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi with Khaled Mashal, the head of Hamas’ political wing. The article was headlined: “Mashal: Pressures on Syria will have a negative effect on Hamas.” Aside from suggesting that the Syria-Hamas relationship is much closer than Syria claims, Mashal describes the truce with Israel as a purely temporary affair. He also suggests that the Bush administration has been secretly sending conciliatory messages to Hamas, a point which I hope is not true, and if true would seem to violate the Bush Doctrine. I have translated it below, and I’ve bolded some key points (note that according to Al-Quds this was apparently reported through the Arabic version of Agence France-Presse, but I haven’t found anything in the English or French media on it):

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The head of Hamas’ political office, Khaled Mashal, has expressed his fear that the current pressures on Syria will have a negative effect on the movement, and said that Hamas considers the truce ÄhudnaÅ agreement with Israel to be a break Äor vacationÅ from fighting.

Mashal said in a press conference that he held in Doha yesterday ÄFridayÅ that “there is no doubt that the pressures on Syria are distressing and that which is coming about as a consequence of the (former Lebanense Prime Minister) Hariri assasination is distressing, and it affects us negatively.” And responding to a question regarding the possibility of Hamas leaving Syria, Mashal sufficed to say that his movement was present in various countries, in some of them in an open manner, and that in others they had an undeclared presence.

He added that “our status with the Arab regimes is healthy and does not represent a burden on anyone except that our presence attracts oppressive American pressure.” He refrained from detailing the view of the Hamas leadership externally regarding a situation in which they had to leave Syria. For the better part of a year, most Palestinian officials based in Damascus have toned down their appearance following pressures from the United States on Syria demanding that it puts an end to the presence of hard-line Palestinian organizations on its soil.

Regarding the new Palestinian government, Mashal said that “our problem now is not the government, despite some observations regarding it, but our basic problem is contained within the necessity of having a high authority for the Palestinian people Ähe used the term murja’iyya, which has Islamic overtonesÅ and that there be agreement on the political program and how to manage this stage.” And he added that “it is necessary to understand our demands, that they are conditions for entering the government. There is a political crisis in the government and it goes back to previous crises and the government of Abu Alla’ (Ahmad Qurea) which was in an ambiguous situation because of the internal timetable of Fatah… There is a conflict of generations in the movement and reports on the ministers go back a while, and the ministers are corrupt and Fatah feels that these individuals are accountable to the movement ÄFatah itself, as opposed to the Palestinian peopleÅ. And regarding the truce agreement ÄhudnaÅ with Israel, Mashal said “we consider it a break from fighting.”

Mashal added that “we will not lay down the weapon of resistance and if the security organizations use weapons against the people then this is not legal also.” ÄThis is a reference to Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas’ declarations that he would crack down on Palestinian terrorism.Å

In his comments on the return of the Jordanian and Egyptian ambassadors to Israel, the head of Hamas’ political office said “we consider this step to be in error.”

He also criticized the visit of the Israel’s Deputy Minister for Education, Culture and Sports, Hahkam Mikhael, to Qatar, and called on Arab nations to not renew their relations or establish new relations with Israel.

On another point, Mashal revealed receiving contacts from the Americans. He said that “its not a secret that before the martyrdom of Shaikh Ahmad Yassin (the founder of Hamas) and our response in the movement, there was a contact from the American side which came from the outside and at a time essentially contemporaneous.” And he added that the American administration applied pressure through this contact presenting a prodding message in an attempt to get Hamas to think of itself as a constructive actor in the Palestinian public sphere and that it had its own space and thus convince it that it had a significant role, but the letter also contained a threatening message in case that we weren’t responsive.”

Mashal further said that “we rejected this message. But he added that the Americans are always trying to send messages to us by indirect means, a matter which confirms that despite the fact that Hamas is on Washington’s list of terrorist organizations, there will be no solution on the Palestinian side without Hamas.”

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As noted above, it would seem a rather egregious violation of the Bush Doctrine if the administration was making nice with Hamas, and something of a delusional misunderstanding of the nature of the movement if the administration really thought that Hamas’ grievances just revolved around how much land they got in a final settlement. I suppose this would not be the first time that the State Department demonstrated a lack of basic understanding of movements of this sort, but it is pretty well known that Hamas’ raison d’etre is the annihilation of Israel.

Contributed by Kirk H. Sowell at Window on the Arab World, and More!