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Inviting Hamas leader to Tehran summit causes dissatisfaction

27 August 2012 08:30 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Konul Jafarli â€“ APA. An Iranian government official announced on Sunday that the country has not sent any formal invitation to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to attend a summit meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran next week.

"Only (Palestinian President) Mr. Mahmoud Abbas has been invited to attend the NAM summit and no official invitation has been sent to Mr. Ismail Haniyeh," Mohammad Reza Forqani, spokesman of the Headquarters in charge of arranging the 16th NAM Summit, told Fars news agency on Sunday.

Forqani’s statements came after the Palestinian news agency, Ma’an, quoted Haniyeh’s office as saying on Friday that the Hamas leader has been invited to attend the summit in Tehran next week.

Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyed strongly reacted to this issue. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has recently said that he would attend the summit, would reportedly review his decision.