Hamas’ Meshaal Due in Gaza, Jordan

Hamas’ Meshaal Due in Gaza, Jordan

Local Editor

Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal plans to visit Gaza for the first time, possibly accompanied by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, a Hamas official said Tuesday. The trip would be a historic first for Meshaal who was born in the West Bank but went into exile after the 1967 Six Day War. It would come as his Hamas movement attempts to implement a reconciliation deal with rival Palestinian movement Fatah. Meshaal "may be accompanied to Gaza by president Mahmud Abbas in order to give a big boost to the reconciliation and restore the public's confidence in the process," said Ahmed Youssef, a counselor to the Hamas ministry of foreign affairs in the Gaza Strip. Youssef, who met with Meshaal in Cairo last week, stressed the visit would require coordination "with a number of parties, including, especially our Egyptian brothers." Khaled Meshaal, political chief of the Palestinian Hamas movement, is also due in Jordan on Sunday on his first official visit since he was expelled in 1999, Jordanian government spokesman said. "Khaled Meshaal will visit Jordan on Sunday, along with the Crown Prince of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Tamim al-Thani," Rakan Majali, who is also information minister told media sources on Tuesday. Majali said Meshaal would meet several government officials, without elaborating further. "His visit is part of a new chapter in relations between Jordan and Hamas. But this will not be at the expense of the Palestinian Authority, which is the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people," he added. "Reopening Hamas offices in Amman is not on the agenda. They did not ask for that anyway." "The trip is also aimed at facing Israeli schemes to abolish Palestinian refugees' right of return and turn Jordan into a substitute homeland for Palestinians," Abu Zuhri told same media sources. Relations between Hamas and Jordan have remained strained since 1999, when the authorities expelled Meshaal along with three other members of the Palestinian Islamic movement. Jordanian Prime Minister Awn Khasawneh said in November that the expulsion of Hamas leaders from Jordan had been "a constitutional and political error."

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