The top leader of the Hamas terror group says he has received an invitation to make an official visit to Moscow.
The office of Ismail Haniyeh says the invitation was delivered today by a visiting Russian diplomat. Its statement did not elaborate on the purpose of the visit.
Russia maintains high-level contact with Hamas, which Israel, the US and the European Union classify as a terrorist group.
Haniyeh was elected as Hamas’s top leader last year. His predecessor, Khaled Mashaal, visited Moscow frequently.
In 2007, a year after winning parliamentary elections, Hamas drove out the Western-backed Palestinian Authority from Gaza and took over the coastal enclave.
Russia has hosted several rounds of talks aimed at forging reconciliation between Hamas and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party.
— AP
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