Brotherhood leaders to leave Qatar – but Hamas remains

A top leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood group says he and other senior members are departing Qatar, where they had sought refuge following the ousting of Egypt’s Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and the crackdown on his supporters.

Amr Darrag says in a statement posted on his Facebook page today that a number of the group’s leaders are leaving Qatar following a request to do so by the Gulf monarchy.

Hamas’s leader Ismail Haniyah, however, remains safely exiled in Qatar, one of his terror group’s main backers.

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In a speech given in Qatar on Saturday, Haniyah said: “The war in Gaza taught us an important lesson, and that is that the enemy understands only the language of force.We are in favour of political and diplomatic processes, but such processes must be leveraged from a position of resistance.”

In 2012 the Emir of Qatar, whose state is set to host the 2022 Fifa World Cup, pledged more than $400million to Hamas.

Qatar was a close ally of Mr Morsi, and relations between Cairo and Doha have been strained since his ousting, with Egypt accusing Qatar of backing the Brotherhood.

Many Brotherhood leaders fled Egypt after Mr Morsi’s overthrow, as security forces launched a sweeping crackdown on his supporters, killing hundreds in street clashes and jailing thousands.