Haniyeh Criticized After Calling Soleimani 'Martyr of Jerusalem'

 Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh gestures as he delivers a speech in Gaza City January 23, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh gestures as he delivers a speech in Gaza City January 23, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
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Haniyeh Criticized After Calling Soleimani 'Martyr of Jerusalem'

 Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh gestures as he delivers a speech in Gaza City January 23, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh gestures as he delivers a speech in Gaza City January 23, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

The head of Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, has sparked widespread controversy after he described the commander of the IRGC Al-Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by the United States in Iraq last Friday, as a “martyr of Jerusalem.”

“The martyr Commander Soleimani spent his life in order to support the resistance while he was at the head of Al-Quds Force,” Haniyeh said in a speech before mourners in Tehran.

In the speech translated into Persian, Haniyeh repeatedly said that Soleimani was the “martyr of Jerusalem”. Activists, intellectuals and Brotherhood officials rejected the remarks, criticizing Hamas’ positions.

Many anti-Iran figures, inside and outside Hamas and in the Arab world, rejected Haniyeh’s participation in the funeral and disapproved his statements.

Ibrahim Hamami, a writer and researcher of the leading defenders of Hamas, wrote in response to Haniyeh: “No, he is not the martyr of Jerusalem.”

He said the Hamas official’s words were “more than dangerous.”

Controversial reactions spread on social networking sites. This came despite the fact that Haniyeh had ordered Hamas officials to avoid delving into the issue of Soleimani, “given the situation is very sensitive.”

Haniyeh said in Tehran: “The project of the resistance in the land of Palestine and in the region will not weaken and not back down… the assassinations will increase our strength, steadfastness and determination to proceed in order to liberate Jerusalem and liberate the will of this nation.”



Pro-Türkiye Syria Groups Reduce Presence in Kurdish Area, Says Official

US-backed Kurdish fighters stand on their vehicles, as they withdraw from two neighborhoods in Syria's northern city of Aleppo as part of a deal with the Syrian central government, in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP)
US-backed Kurdish fighters stand on their vehicles, as they withdraw from two neighborhoods in Syria's northern city of Aleppo as part of a deal with the Syrian central government, in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP)
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Pro-Türkiye Syria Groups Reduce Presence in Kurdish Area, Says Official

US-backed Kurdish fighters stand on their vehicles, as they withdraw from two neighborhoods in Syria's northern city of Aleppo as part of a deal with the Syrian central government, in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP)
US-backed Kurdish fighters stand on their vehicles, as they withdraw from two neighborhoods in Syria's northern city of Aleppo as part of a deal with the Syrian central government, in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP)

Pro-Türkiye Syrian groups have scaled down their military presence in an historically Kurdish-majority area of the country's north which they have controlled since 2018, a Syrian defense ministry official said on Tuesday.

The move follows an agreement signed last month between Syria's new authorities and Kurdish officials that provides for the return of displaced Kurds, including tens of thousands who fled the Afrin region in 2018.

The pro-Ankara groups have "reduced their military presence and checkpoints" in Afrin, in Aleppo province, the official told AFP, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Their presence has been "maintained in the region for now", said the official, adding that authorities wanted to station them in army posts but these had been a regular target of Israeli strikes.

After opposition forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, the new authorities announced the disbanding of all armed groups and their integration into the new army, a move that should include pro-Türkiye groups who control swathes of northern Syria.

Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies carried out an offensive from January to March 2018 targeting Kurdish fighters in the Afrin area.

The United Nations has estimated that half of the enclave's 320,000 inhabitants fled during the offensive.

Last month, the Kurdish administration that controls swathes of northern and northeastern Syria struck a deal to integrate its civil and military institutions into those of the central government.

Syria's new leadership has been seeking to unify the country since the December overthrow of Assad after more than 13 years of civil war.

This month, Kurdish fighters withdrew from two neighborhoods of Aleppo as part of the deal.

Syrian Kurdish official Bedran Kurd said on X that the Aleppo city agreement "represents the first phase of a broader plan aimed at ensuring the safe return of the people of Afrin".

The autonomous Kurdish-led administration's military force, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, played a key role in the recapture of the last territory held by the ISIS group in Syria in 2019.