London [UK], May 10 : Jonathan Spyer, Director of Research at the Middle East Forum, has drawn attention to the connections between Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Hamas, emphasising that such links are "worthy of further research."
Discussing ISI's possible role in maintaining connections with Hamas, Spyer stated, "It's quite feasible and not hard to believe that ISI, a crucial, of course, agency within the Pakistani state regarding the support for proxy Islamist terror groups, could also be reaching out to Hamas, and I think this is very much worthy of further research and investigation."
Speaking to ANI, Spyer directly explained, "If we look at the background to the organisation which carried out the attack, we know that it is an organisation that calls itself TRF or The Resistance Front, and that this is really a front organisation actually, which emerged in 2019 from the circles of Lashkar-e-Taiba organisation and Al Mujahideen organisation."
Spyer identified these groups as Islamist terror organisations with similar ideologies and practices to Hamas. "These two organisations are Islamist terror groups with a very similar ideology and a very similar practice to that of Hamas among the Palestinians. Of course, there are some ideological differences, but broadly they belong to the same school, so it is not surprising that we can see these similarities also in practice as they derive from similarities in ideology and in goals and in beliefs," he stated.
Addressing reports of a meeting between ISI and Hamas operatives in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Spyer said, "Yes, we've heard many reports of this kind, and I think these are very much worthy of further research. It's known that Hamas has very close relations with Iran, it also has very close relations with Turkey, and we are familiar with the fact that Turkey and Pakistan have increasingly close relations."
Spyer further highlighted the connection between Turkey and Pakistan, noting, "Turkey and Pakistan have increasingly close relations based maybe also on common interests, but also again on a very similar ideological outlook between the governments of Pakistan and of Turkey."
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