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Ammon News - AMMAN - The Muslim Brotherhood shura council has attempted to bridge the divide among members over links with Hamas, sources said on Saturday.

In a meeting late Thursday, members of the movement’s so-called “dovish camp” demanded the body to sever relations with Hamas at the shura council level. Opposing figures from the “hawk camp” defended ties with Hamas as an “integral part of the group’s foundation”, according to a source who attended the meeting.

“The meeting witnessed a strong debate on the pros and cons of ties with Hamas, but in the end, participants decided to delay a vote for a future session,” the source told The Jordan Times, noting that several events in the near future could influence the group’s decision, including upcoming internal elections at the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The dispute over ties with Hamas has pushed the movement to the brink of crisis in recent years, with four senior Islamists resigning late last year in protest of ongoing relations with the group.

According to a source, the movement is studying an initiative proposed by a top Islamist figure entailing an organisational restructuring of the Muslim Brotherhood’s permanent offices in a bid to settle the split.

Under the proposal, the movement’s offices in the Palestinian territories would no longer be able to vote in the shura council or other influential bodies in Jordan, as a prelude to permanently severing ties with Hamas.

The hawks, who want ties with Hamas to remain unchanged, consider close relations necessary in order to combat alleged Israeli designs to make Jordan an “alternative homeland” for the Palestinians. Doves, on the other hand, believe that ending the group’s links with Hamas would in fact put an end to such fears.

In a statement yesterday, Muslim Brotherhood leaders announced that another meeting on the issue will be held “in the near future”.

Also during last week’ meeting, the group called for a new elections law replacing the current one-person, one-vote system in “a fair and transparent manner”, according to the statement, made available to The Jordan Times yesterday.

Meanwhile, the IAF shura council was scheduled to hold a meeting late Saturday to discuss developments related to upcoming elections and its general assembly, slated for March.

(Jordan Times/ By Mohammad Ben Hussein)