Hamas delegation in Saudi Arabia for high-level talks

Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal and a delegation of senior officials from his Gaza-based group arrived Thursday in Saudi Arabia for a series of meetings with high-profile diplomats in the monarchy. Mashaal’s visit to the Gulf state is the first of its kind in over three years.

The Hamas delegation includes top members of the group’s exiled politburo, such as Moussa Abu Marzouk and Saleh al-Aarori, who Israel maintains is responsible for building the terrorist organization’s military infrastructure in the West Bank, Ynet reported.

The meetings come days after a landmark nuclear accord was signed between world powers and Iran, which is considered to be Saudi Arabia’s number-one rival in the region and, separately, has supported Hamas over the years.

More recently, there has been a falling out between Tehran and Gaza City over Hamas’s refusal to support embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad, a key ally of Iran.

Mashaal is an avid supporter of Saudi Arabia, and Hamas has officially expressed its approval of the monarchy’s fight against Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen.

But despite Mashaal’s stance, top officials in Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, have recently been courting Iran in hopes that the Islamic Republic will provide substantial financial aid in order to rebuild the group’s armed forces in the Strip.

In April, the Egyptian Al-Youm al-Saba’a newspaper reported that Saudi Arabian authorities had arrested a high-ranking Hamas official who served as the Gaza-based group’s financial branch outside of the Strip.

The report further said that Maher Salah had been apprehended in the Gulf state several months ago on suspicion that he laundered money and illegally smuggled funds across the Saudi Arabian border. The Egyptian newspaper added that Hamas member Mohammed Nazzal has since been appointed financial chairman in Salah’s stead.