Hamas Leaders to Visit Iran in January

Hamas Politburo Chief Khaled Mashaal and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh plan to pay a visit to Tehran by the end of January, Hamas officials said.

Haniya’s adviser told the Palestine daily on Thursday that Haniya will visit Iran and Qatar at the end of January.

Haniya, who has just returned from his first trip abroad since the Islamist movement ascended to power through fully democratic parliamentary elections in 2007, would visit Iran and Qatar as part of a wider tour of the Muslim world, Yusef al-Rizq told the newspaper, which is close to Hamas.

“The second stage of prime minister Ismail Haniya’s tour will kick off at the end of January and will include Qatar, Iran and several other Islamic countries,” Rizq said, hailing the success of the first stage which included stops in Egypt, Sudan, Turkey and Tunisia.

Haniya said he had found a great willingness to help the Palestinians and “to break the Israeli blockade imposed on Gaza and its government” in all the countries he visited.

Meantime, Haniyeh’s Deputy and Hamas Foreign Minister Mohammed Awad had also earlier told FNA that Haniyeh would visit Iran this month.

Meantime, Palestine daily quoted Yusef al-Rizq as saying late in December that Hamas Politburo Chief Khaled Mashaal and Ismail Haniyeh would accompany each other in upcoming visits to Iran and Turkey at the head of a Hamas delegation.

Haniyeh’s regional tour began three days after Palestinian factions, including Fatah and Hamas, met in Cairo to thrash out implementation of a surprise deal they signed in April.