السياسة الخارجية السعودية تجاه حركة حماس وأثرها على القضية الفلسطينية 2019-2007 م)
Date
2021-04-06
Authors
خالد توفيق محمد أبو الروس
KHALED T. M. ABUALROOS
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Al-Quds University
Abstract
This study aimed to identify the most prominent factors affecting Saudi foreign policy towards Hamas from 2007-2019, which resulted from the regional and Arab geopolitical changes. The researcher divided the study into six chapters: The first chapter frameword of the study, the second chapter dealt with the internal and external determinants of Saudi foreign policy, and the third chapter addressed the factors that led to the start of political contacts between Saudi Arabia and Hamas. The fifth chapter focused on the repercussions of the Hamas movement’s coming to power in 2006, the fourth chapter dealt with the repercussions of the change in Saudi foreign policy after the death of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz in 2015, and the sixth chapter looked into the impact of Saudi foreign policy on the Palestinian issue and the reconciliation.
The study used the following approaches: the historical approach and the descriptive analytical approach, and relied on the theory of realism in international relations, and used the interview tool.
The study concluded with a set of results, the most prominent of which is that the failure of the Saudi mediation, known as the Mecca Agreement in 2007, constituted an important shift in the course of the relationship, and concluded that the influences in the internal and external environment, especially after the outbreak of the Arab popular movement in 2011, deepened the political crisis between Saudi Arabia and Hamas, among which are the relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, the relationship with the Iranian Republic, and the relationship with Israel and the United States of America.
The study made several recommendations to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, most notably is the need to reconsider its interventionist approach in dealing with Hamas and try to restore the relationship with Hamas. This is because the relationship with Hamas is beneficial to Saudi foreign policy as Saudi Arabia is a central state and Hamas is an active element in it. The study recommends Hamas to be cautious about the competitive war between Iran and Saudi Arabia and to work to establish a policy of building relations with all actors and states in order to gain more supportive moves for the Hamas movement and the Palestinian cause.
The study also recommended that Saudi Arabia refrain from continuing labelling Hamas as “terrorist movement” in international forums and through its official media, because these classifications harm the resistance and only serve the perceptions of Israel and the United States of America. Hamas, on the other hand, is called on to work diplomatically to reset the relationship and use the media to try to reform its image within Gulf societies on order to put an end to the Saudi propaganda policies against it.