Hamas political chief to travel to Moscow for talks

[Purveyor]

Associated Press

MOSCOW: Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal will travel next week to Moscow for talks, the Foreign Ministry said a day after the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators demanded that any Palestinian government recognize Israel.

During Mashaal's visit, Russia planned to continue its efforts "toward stabilizing the situation in the Palestinian territories and overcoming the inter-Palestinian discord that followed the Mecca agreement between Hamas and Fatah," the ministry said in a statement Thursday.

Russia also wanted to help in the forming of a Palestinian national-unity government "that takes into consideration the well-known criteria of the Quartet, and also the resumption of the Palestinian-Israeli dialogue," the ministry said.

Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, confirmed the upcoming trip, saying its aim was to "market the Mecca agreement and garner support for it."

---end of excerpt---

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/23/europe/EU-GEN-Russia-Hamas.php