MM Rahmatullah: One of the current myths is that the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, is a Shiite organization. I was shocked when I first heard this complaint. I have known Palestine as a Sunni-majority town for hundreds of years, when did it become Shia? I later learned that Hamas was being called a Shiite because of its cooperative relationship with Iran. However, these pure blasphemers do not say that the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have become Jews in order to establish a cooperative relationship with Israel.

No, Hamas has never concealed its relationship with Iran, which is one of the things they are grateful for every time the war ends.

But why does the Palestinian Sunni resistance movement Hamas accept the help of the Shiite state of Iran? Why does Iran also support Sunni organizations? We will try to find answers to these questions.

Palestine`s relationship with Iran is very old. In the late nineteenth century, Iran opened a mission in Palestine to look after the facilities of its merchants.

When the state of Israel was established in Palestine in 1948, Iran was under the rule of Reza Shah Pahlavi. The Shah had good relations with Iran and Israel. There were trade relations; Savak-Mosso also had a relationship of cooperation and information sharing. Iran also cooperates with Israel in establishing relations with Egypt.

But after the 1979 revolution in Iran led by Imam Khomeini, the relationship began to reverse. By severing ties with Israel, Iran has forged ties with the PLO. Soon the tide of Iran-PLO fell. The secular organization PLO "Islamic Republic" is not a suitable tool to implement Iran`s agenda. Yasser Arafat supported Saddam Hussein during the First Gulf War in the spirit of Arab nationalism. As a result, the PLO`s relations with Iran have deteriorated.

However, it is not too late for Iran to find an alternative in Palestine. Iran left the PLO and first supported Islamic Jihad. But soon another strong resistance movement emerged in Palestine. In 1987, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin founded the Brotherhood`s offshore Hamas.

In 1992, Israel deported hundreds of Hamas leaders to southern Lebanon. This is what harms Israel, what benefits Iran. Hezbollah, a pro-Iranian group based in southern Lebanon, has established ties with Hamas. Contact is also with Iran. Iran provides strategic military assistance to Hamas. Iran`s contact with Hamas has never been a secret. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin visited Iran in 1998 after his release from Israeli prison. Khamenei and Khatami met with him.

Hamas won an unprecedented victory in the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections. The issue has left Israel and its Western allies deeply concerned. The Fatah faction later distanced itself from Hamas. Hamas-controlled Gaza is under siege. This situation pushes Hamas more and more towards Iran.

With the onset of the Arab Spring, Iran`s relations with Hamas are plunged into an unprecedented crisis. Iran`s attitude towards this mass movement was ambiguous. They support the spring in Yemen, Egypt and Tunisia as a movement to establish Islam. But identifying the Syrian mass movement is called a Western conspiracy. Hamas has close ties to Syrian opposition groups. Many Hamas fighters have also fought on their behalf. On the other hand, Syrian President Assad is Iran`s most trusted ally in the Middle East. Hamas headquarters in the Syrian capital, Damascus. So in the Syrian civil war, Hamas has long sought to maintain neutrality. But Hamas has had to leave the Damascus office if Assad demands public support. Iran has called Hamas`s support for anti-Assad forces a "clear betrayal."

Iran reaffirmed its support for Hamas in 2012 after the Israeli aggression was repulsed. But this time, Iran`s behavior with the military and political wing of Hamas is revealed. Although Iran has provided military, financial, and technological support, it has remained indifferent to the political wing of Hamas. Perhaps Iran was not comfortable working with Khalid Meshaal, the head of Hamas`s political wing.

Saudi Arabia is desperate to use this opportunity to divert Hamas from Iran. The Cairo Accords of 2011 and the Doha Accords of 2012 were the fruits of this effort. But to fight Israel, we need weapons and military technology in addition to rice and cloth. In this case, Saudi Arabia failed to give Hamas any alternative gift from Iran. As a result, Saudi efforts to alienate Hamas from Iran have failed.

When Morsi fell in Egypt, Hamas fell into an extreme crisis. At this time, they announced to accept the two-state solution. But when Donald Trump comes to power and blindly accepts Israel`s demands one by one, Hamas will lose hope of reaching a peaceful two-state solution. In addition, the Arab states have pushed back on the Palestinian issue, normalizing relations with Israel, and pushing Hamas back against a wall that has no walls. Then Hamas had no choice but to turn to Iran again. On the positive side, Ismail Haniyeh, who is considered liberal about Iran, replaces Khalid Meshaal in charge of Hamas`s political wing. Hamas has since publicly expressed its gratitude to Iran for the recent war.

Iran and Hamas have two different goals. Iran wants to export revolution. That is why They want to start a war. But they never want to bring war to its territory. Let`s fight in Iraq, Syria and Palestine. The war in Syria is over. Now Iran is using the Palestinian war as a tool to increase its political influence. Internally, Iran also has advantages. With a strong role in the Palestinian issue, Iran`s extremists want to come to power again and again with the sympathy of the people.

But Hamas is different. Hamas`s pro-Iran is only for stance. If a drowning person has access to any hand, he will never ask whether it is the hand of a Shia or the hand of a Sunni.

Hamas`s pro-Iran stance is by no means an affiliation with Shiism. Hamas would not have had to side with Iran if Saudi food and cloth had been used in the fight against resistance.

What kind of people are those who judge religion in extending a hand to drowning people?

Putting the above question in front of you, I’m not interested to give you the answer of the question `Has Hamas become Shia`.