Hamas chief’s planned visit to Moscow postponed

By Nour Abu Aisha

GAZA CITY, Palestine

A scheduled visit to Moscow by Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh -- initially slated for Jan. 15 -- has been indefinitely postponed, the Gaza-based resistance group said Thursday.

"A planned visit to Russia by Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political bureau, has been postponed to a later date," senior Hamas member Mousa Abu Marzouk confirmed in a statement.

Abu Marzouk said he was informed of the decision during a Thursday phone call with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov.

During the call, the two men also discussed “other developments pertaining to Palestine”, Abu Marzouk said.

In late December, Bogdanov announced that a meeting between Haniyeh and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had been scheduled for Jan. 15.