Hamas caught in the crossfire

Damascus: The uprising in Syria, now in its 11th month, has caused extreme discomfort to Hamas, the Palestinian resistance organisation that has been based in Damascus, Syria, for years.

On Friday, Khalid Mesha'al, Hamas' leader, left Damascus with no plans to return. Earlier in January, Esmail Haniya, Hamas' Prime Minister in Gaza, visited Turkey, a former Al Assad ally that is now perhaps his most powerful regional critic.

It is by no means a certainty that President Bashar Al Assad will depart soon, despite the increased pressure on him on the streets of Syria and at the UN Security Council, where an effort by Western powers and the Arab League is under way to force him aside.

But as signs of his unpopularity have spread in Syria and his list of supporters declines, Iran has been one of the few conspicuous allies of Al Assad that has not abandoned him — possibly because it has no alternative.

Many Syrians now view Iran as siding with their oppressor. There have been at least three instances in recent weeks of abductions of Iranians in Syria by anti-Al Assad forces.

Seizure

The most notable was the seizure last month of five Iranians, whom Iran's state-run media called engineers but anti-Al Assad groups said were military advisers.

In a video posted online by a unit of the insurgent Free Syrian Army, which claimed to hold the Iranians, one of the men identified as a hostage said the five had been "involved in suppressing and shooting ordinary Syrians" and urged Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, "to order the Iranian military personnel who suppress the Syrians to be repatriated from Syria, so we can also return home".