News Analysis: Egypt's mediation in Palestinian issues unlikely to be affected by listing Hamas as 'terror group'

CAIRO (Xinhua) - Although an Egyptian court designated on Saturday the Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas as a terrorist organization, the decision is unlikely to affect Egypt's mediation role in key Palestinian issues, said Egyptian experts.

Egypt brokered last year Hamas-Israel ceasefire in the Gaza Strip through indirect talks in the Egyptian capital Cairo, which also hosted several inter-Palestinian reconciliation meetings between Hamas, the Palestinian ruling Fatah movement and other factions since the time of ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

"Practically, today's court ruling will not shut down communication channels between Egypt and Hamas and it will not affect the Egyptian mediation role in Palestinian issues," Mohamed Gomaa, expert of Palestinian affairs at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic studies, told Xinhua.

The expert added that the decision was "undesirable", but Hamas and Egypt will continue dealing with each other as Egypt-controlled Rafah border crossing is "a kidney for besieged Hamas" and Hamas-ruled Gaza is also a strategic depth for Egypt.

"The decision is rather political and symbolic, but on the ground, security coordination between Egypt and Hamas will not be affected," Gomaa explained.

In late January, the same Cairo Court of Urgent Matters listed al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, as a terrorist group,  following a series of bloody terrorist attacks occurred in Egypt' s restive Sinai Peninsula that killed more than 30 soldiers and policemen.

The court's decisions are based on alleged links between the Palestinian movement, extremists in Sinai and the Muslim Brotherhood group, from which ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi hailed, and which was also blacklisted by the Egyptian new leadership as a terrorist organization.

"Despite the tense relations between Egypt and Hamas since Morsi's removal, Egypt still brokered a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel last year, which explains that Egypt and Hamas are connected by the logic of necessity," the political expert said.

Gomaa said the Egyptian media unfairly, unreasonably and inaccurately mobilized the public against Hamas, but he also blamed Hamas for indirect support of Sinai extremists against the Egyptian army and criticized Hamas' desire "to have Egypt's North Sinai as its backyard."

Since Morsi's ouster by the military in July 2013, the Egyptian authorities have been cracking down on Islamist militant groups based in the Sinai Peninsula, of which some are accused of having links with the Hamas movement.

Islamist militants killed hundreds of security personnel in Sinai, especially in the northern district that shares a border with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

In reply to the Egyptian court order, Hamas said Saturday that "the decision is a coup on history," describing it as "shocking and dangerous and directly targeting the Palestinian people and their armed resistance."

Salah Gomaa, expert of Palestinian affairs at Egyptian state-run MENA news agency, said there was a difference between a court order and the position of the state.

"This is a court decision that is different from the relations between Egypt and Hamas," he told Xinhua, arguing that the Egyptian government could have explicitly labeled Hamas as a terror group if it had wanted.

"Egypt deals with Hamas by 'de facto' policy and there is no Egyptian leadership that could ignore dealing with the rulers of Gaza Strip," the expert added, citing that the Egyptian regimes communicated with Hamas at all times and regardless of the circumstances.

"The Egyptian strategy can by no means adopt the position of the court," the MENA expert stressed, noting that the Egyptian leadership until today did not designate Hamas as a terrorist group.

Meanwhile, he said that although the same court had previously listed al-Qassam Brigades as a terrorist group, Egyptian Arab League chief Nabil al-Araby said that "al-Qassam Brigades and similar Palestinian resistance brigades that confront the Israeli occupation are not terrorists and they have 100 percent right of legitimate resistance."

"The decision was made by an Egyptian court, not by the political leadership, and Egypt's relations with Hamas will continue because the Gaza Strip, whether we like it or not, is a strategic depth for Egypt," the expert said.

For his part, Tarek Fahmy, head of Israeli Studies Department at the National Center for Middle East Studies, ruled out the possibility that the court order could give Israel an excuse to strike Gaza.

"The ruling does not give Israel any more excuses because Hamas has been considered a terrorist organization by the Israeli and the US norms anyway," Fahmy told Xinhua.

Egypt accuses Hamas of being involved in an armed jailbreak during the 2011 uprising that toppled former long-time leader Mubarak and of plotting with the Brotherhood to undermine the country's security and stability.

The expert said that although Hamas was accused by Egypt of being involved in the jailbreak, Egypt still received a number of Hamas leading members in Cairo last year for ceasefire indirect talks with Israel.

"It is too early to judge whether the court order will affect Egypt's mediation in Palestinian issues like the inter-Palestinian reconciliation or Hamas talks with Israel," the expert concluded.