It contributes to political turbulence within Hamas, which has recently faced a slew of criticism for continuing to be based in Damascus as the Syrian government violently cracks down on demonstrators throughout the country.
In the statement from Hamas’ official e-mail account, the Palestinian group urged him to reconsider his decision, saying the issue of who leads the decades-old movement should be left to Hamas. The group says the decision shouldn’t be made by one person — even its leader.
“The movement urges (Mashaal) to reconsider, and to leave this issue to the Shoura Council, with full respect to his wishes (not to run again), considering this is a public matter that the Hamas institutions should decide, and not an individual person,” the statement said. The Shoura Council is the top-level body in Hamas that elects its leadership.
It is not clear when new elections might be held. Mashaal, who is based in Damascus, was not immediately available for comment.
Senior Hamas official Ezzat Risheq confirmed the statement from his Damascus office. He too, urged Mashaal to reconsider.
Since 2006 the group has ruled the Gaza Strip, a sliver of territory wedged between Egypt’s Sinai desert and Israel.
It is also a rival of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority which rules the West Bank, a territory that flanks the other side of Israel.
The confirmation that Meshaal wants to step down comes amid press reports of growing friction between the Damascus-based leadership-in-exile and the movement’s Gaza wing, which has ruled the territory since ousting forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in 2007. A series of meetings which Meshaal has held with Abbas in recent months in a bid to reconcile the two factions and unify their rival administrations have reportedly drawn criticism from some Gaza leaders.
Last month, the two men agreed on a process that could pave the way for the Islamist group to join a reformed Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and for long-delayed Palestinian elections across Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Abbas’s secular Fatah faction has accused Hamas leaders in Gaza of trying to sabotage the reconcilation moves and has called on Meshaal to rein them in.
“We know that there are forces of Hamas in Gaza who want neither reconciliation nor to give up their empire, their money or their influence,” the secretary general of Fatah’s revolutionary council, Amin Maqbul, said last week.
“There is a real threat to reconciliation if the exiled leadership of Hamas does not begin to put pressure on those inside to change the situation in Gaza and insist on the culture of national unity and reconciliation,” he told Voice of Palestine radio.
