Hamas’ Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Turkish parliament in Ankara on Jan. 3, 2012. (AP Photo/File)

(CNSNews.com) – Hamas’ Gaza-based leader, Ismail Haniyeh, is due to visit Iran on Friday, further fueling some of the heaviest speculation in years about shifts in the terrorist group’s alliances and strategies resulting from the political upheavals in the Arab world.

The Sunni group, a Palestinian offshoot of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, has found its loyalties tested as the violence in Syria worsens.

On the one hand, Hamas sees fellow Sunnis in Syria, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood, embroiled in deadly conflict with the regime of President Bashar Assad;  On the other hand, the Assad regime and its closest ally, Shi’ite Iran, have sponsored Hamas for years, with Damascus hosting the group’s political bureau and its overall leader, Khaled Meshaal.

Angered by Hamas’ failure to support Assad more actively, Iran has reportedly cut off regular funding the group has enjoyed for years.

Recent weeks have brought a stepped-up diplomatic drive, with both Haniyeh and Meshaal paying visits to Arab and neighboring countries.

In early January Haniyeh left the Gaza Strip for the first time since Hamas seized control of the territory from Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction in 2007, traveling to Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia and Sudan.

The visit to Turkey – whose Islamist-leaning government backs Hamas despite being a member of NATO and a close ally of the Obama administration – led to reports saying Hamas was looking for funding from Ankara to make up for the Iranian cutoff, as well as a new base for Meshaal, given the deteriorating security situation in Damascus.

Turkey’s Today’s Zaman newspaper opined that Turkey would be “a very plausible candidate” as a new home for Hamas, which was wanting a base that was politically stable and well-connected internationally.

Turkey’s government denied both claims, however, while reiterating its support for and recognition of Hamas.

While in Egypt, Haniyeh met with Arab League secretary-general Nabil Al-Arabi and the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Badie, both of whom are likely to have pressed him on Hamas’ position vis-à-vis the Syrian uprising.

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, left, holds talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, right, in Amman on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. In the center is Crown Prince of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, who facilitated Meshaal’s visit to Jordan 13 years after Abdullah expelled him. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon)

Then Meshaal at the weekend paid what was described as an historic visit to Jordan, 13 years after King Abdullah – under pressure from the United States, Israel and Fatah – expelled Hamas and sent him and other leaders into exile, accusing the group of fomenting violence.

The visit, facilitated by Qatar, stoked reports that Meshaal may move from Damascus back to Amman, although neither Hamas nor the Jordanian government confirmed this.

The Western-backed king’s hosting of Meshaal prompted some criticism from pro-Israel advocates.

“King Abdullah has recently expressed concern for Arab/Israeli peace-making,” said Morton Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America. “He is therefore under an obligation to explain how peace-making is compatible with letting into the country Hamas, which seeks to annihilate one of the parties to the conflict and murder every Jew.”

(Hamas’ covenant, adopted at its founding in 1988, states in article 15: “The day that enemies usurp part of Muslim land, jihad becomes the individual duty of every Muslim. In face of the Jews’ usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of jihad be raised.”

The “usurpation,” in Hamas’ view, applies to the entire state of Israel as established in 1948 – not merely the territories captured from Jordanian and Egyptian control in 1967. The covenant dates the Islamic struggle against the “Zionist invaders” to the 1930s.

Article seven of the covenant affirms that the struggle is a world-wide one, then quotes a hadith (a tradition ascribed to Mohammed) about the need for Muslims to kill Jews hiding behind stones and trees, and says Hamas aspires to realize Allah’s promise, no matter how long it takes.

An opinion poll conducted last July found more than 70 percent of Palestinian respondents said they agreed with that article of the covenant.)

‘Strategic shift’

This week saw Haniyeh on the move again, visiting Qatar – an increasingly influential Sunni player in the region – and several other Arab Gulf states before going to Iran on Friday.

The trip to Tehran comes at the invitation of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who, according to a Hamas spokesman, sent him a letter congratulating him on the anniversary of the “victory” in the 2008-2009 Gaza-Israel conflict and asked him to visit.

Palestinian commentators said the invitation suggested an improvement in ties, while others suspect Ahmadinejad may deliver an ultimatum – get back into line as part of the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah axis or lose our support.

Some analysis also has Haniyeh and Meshaal at odds, with the Gaza-based leader wanting to tighten ties with Iran and maintain a hard line – Haniyeh recently urged Abbas to stop exploratory talks with the Israelis – and Meshaal supposedly favoring a move to a more “moderate” stance, including reconciliation with rival Fatah.

“Meshaal has made a number of overtures hinting at the movement’s strategic shift from military to nonviolent resistance coinciding with Hamas’ readiness to join a reformed and restructured PLO and its willingness to complete reconciliation with Fatah,” Amman-based political commentator Osama al-Sharif wrote in the Saudi daily Arab News on Wednesday.

Sharif said Meshaal has been boosted by the rise of fellow Islamists in Arab countries in transition, and speculated that he may be “setting himself up for a bigger role within the new PLO.”

Hamas, which has a long history of deadly terror attacks against Israel, has been designated by the U.S. government as a “foreign terrorist organization” since 1995.

Official U.S. policy shuns dealings with the group unless it meets criteria established by the Mideast “Quartet” – the U.S., Russia, European Union and the U.N. – which says it must recognize Israel’s right to exist, renounce violence, and adhere to all previously signed Israel-Palestinian agreements.