Syrian State TV Lashes Out at Hamas Leader, Calling Him a Traitor

[Dale_M]

This is a surprising development. Apparently, Hamas’ leadership has sided with the Muslim countries which are opposed to Assad’s rule. But Syria has long been a supporter of Hamas.

State television in Syria issued a withering attack late Monday on a longtime ally, the leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Khaled Meshal, declaring him an ungrateful child and a corrupt traitor, saying he was having a “romantic emotional crisis” over the Syrian uprising and accusing him of selling out “resistance for power.”

The extraordinary reproof, a departure from the blander tone of most Syrian official statements, was the government’s first broadside against Hamas since the organization distanced itself from the embattled President Bashar al-Assad earlier this year, when most Hamas leaders left their refuge in Damascus and shuttered their office there.

Damascus seemed to be striking back after Mr. Meshal appeared at a news conference of the party of Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and after Mr. Erdogan and Egypt’s president, Mohamed Morsi, pointedly declared their shared priorities of opposing Mr. Assad and supporting the Palestinians — a blow to Mr. Assad’s longstanding and domestically compelling persona as the champion of Palestinian resistance against Israel.

nytimes.com/2012/10/03/world/middleeast/syrian-state-tv-lashes-out-at-hamas-leader-khaled-meshal.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

Khaled Meshal, the leader of Hamas, is now living in Qatar, a country which is a key financial supporter of the rebels in Syria.