Syrian state TV lashes out at Hamas

Newscaster scolds, mocks onetime ally Khaled Meshal

BEIRUT — State television in Syria issued a withering attack late Monday on a longtime ally, Khaled Meshal, leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, addressing him as if he were an ungrateful child, 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 embattled President Bashar Assad earlier this year, when most Hamas leaders left their Damascus refuge and shuttered their office there.

The attack was a TV editorial delivered by a newscaster in alternately stern and mocking tones, who reminded Mr. Meshal that he was “orphaned” by Arab nations who would not accept him when he fled Jordan in 1999. She implied that he must have sold out to Israel, saying that was the only explanation for host Qatar’s willingness to accept him now.

Damascus seemed to be striking back after Mr. Meshal appeared at a congress of the party of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and after Mr. Erdogan and Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi pointedly declared their shared priorities of opposing Mr. Assad and supporting the Palestinians — a blow to Mr. Assad’s longtime, domestically compelling persona as champion of Palestinian resistance against Israel.

Hamas did not immediately respond to the attack on Mr. Meshal, who recently announced plans to step down from the group’s helm.

Damascus is likely furious that Mr. Meshal has taken up residence in Qatar, one of the nations — along with Saudi Arabia and the United States — it accuses of bankrolling the rebels.

Syria, Iran, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Hamas long considered themselves an “axis of resistance,” in contrast to Arab nations — notably Egypt — that pursued a more accommodationist policy with Israel and the United States.

But relations in the axis have teetered as some Syrian Palestinians have joined the uprising, and as some Hamas officials find it impossible not to sympathize with fellow Sunni Muslims in Syria, who form the bulk of the anti-Assad movement and have borne the brunt of Mr. Assad’s brutal crackdown.

But Hezbollah remains a steadfast ally, although it has denied allegations by domestic opponents and the United States that it has aided in Syria’s crackdown.

On Tuesday, Hezbollah’s website reported that one of its senior commanders, Ali Hussein Nassif, had died carrying out “jihadist duties.” A Lebanese security official told the AP that Mr. Nassif died in Syria. It was unclear whether he was fighting alongside Syrian forces.

The verbal assault on Mr. Meshal came amid a Damascus public relations offensive of sorts, hours after Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem told the U.N. General Assembly that Syria’s 18-month uprising was a terrorist movement being financed by the United States and its allies to weaken Syria, and that Syrians who fled the country had been manipulated by Syria’s neighbors in a coldhearted plot for those nations to demand foreign aid.

Nearly 300,000 Syrians have sought sanctuary in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, and the U.N. refugee agency has called the outflow a major humanitarian problem that could destabilize the region.