Syrian journalist Thaer Al-Nashef, who is currently living in exile in Vienna, said that the Hamas "media machine" and Iran have exploited events in Jerusalem and Gaza in order to garner Arab sympathy over other Palestinian factions and to further Iranian interests in the Vienna nuclear negotiations. He made these remarks in a show that aired on Al-Jazeera Network (Qatar) on May 25, 2021. Al-Nashef said that Iran is exploiting the situation to gain sympathy in the Arab world, after its reputation was tarnished following its actions in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. He added that Hamas instigated the events in Sheikh Jarrakh and the Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to provoke the Israeli police. Al-Nashef went on to say that Hamas ignores its civilian population, which it uses as human shields, and that a third of its rockets fell inside the Gaza Strip, killing Palestinian civilians. He further said that while Hamas claims that it only launches its rockets against military targets, the whole world saw that it targeted Israeli civilians. Al-Nashef said that Hamas's leaders will split the billions that they get in aid in order to rehabilitate the Gaza Strip among themselves, just like they did after the 2009 and 2014 wars. He said that Hamas's wealth grows with every war. For more about Thaer Al-Nashef, see MEMRI TV clip no 7810.
Thaer Al-Nashef: "Hamas has declared victory over Israel, just like Gamal Abd Al-Naser declared victory over Israel, even though he lost the Sinai Peninsula in its entirety, the Egyptian army was completely destroyed, and thousand of Egyptian soldiers were killed. At the same time, Hamas ignores the civilians it used as human shields in the Gaza strip by shooting useless missiles, a third of which fell on the people in the Gaza strip, instead of Israeli cities. Hamas claims that it has hit Israeli military targets, but that is a complete lie because the entire world saw in the media that Hamas's missiles targeted Israeli civilians.
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"Did Muslims in Sarajevo, Tirana, Bosnia, and Africa rally to support Hamas, and those behind it, like the regime of the Mullahs in Iran? Those who rallied were Arab crowds frustrated with the autocracy of the Arab regimes, [crowds] whose sentiments were riled up by Hamas, exploiting the events of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, that were instigated by Hamas and those who stand with it by provoking the Israeli police.
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"Thus, the Arab public was mobilized by the media machine of Hamas and those behind it – the Iranian regime. All this was done in order to raise the popularity of Hamas among the Palestinian public, at the expense of other factions like Fatah, and other factions, and in order to revitalize Iran and polish its image in the region, after it was tarnished by its crimes in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq. Iran is exploiting what happened in the Gaza Strip in a big way for the sake of its interests in the nuclear negotiations that are conducted here in Vienna.
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"It is certain that Hamas will not conduct a discussion about what happened in the Gaza Strip and they will not hold each other responsible. The leaders of Hamas will get together to divide among themselves the money that will be poured into [Gaza] now just like they did after the wars of 2009 and 2014. Hamas's wealth grows with every war. Billions [of dollars] are deposited in the bank accounts of the leaders of Hamas."