Meshal to visit Russia next week on Mideast peace

Hamas leader Khaled Meshal will visit Russia next week for talks on ending a Palestinian split and bringing about a resumption of peace talks with Israel, the Russian government said on Thursday.

Hamas, which is backed by Syria and Iran, has been shunned by the West over the Islamist group's refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept existing interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals.

"The main topic that will be discussed is the way to end the Palestinian divisions and how to resume the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations," Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko told reporters in Moscow.

Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 in fighting with Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whom Israel and the United States have been trying to woo back to peace negotiations suspended since 2008.

Talks to reconcile Hamas and Fatah have yielded no results since Egypt began mediation in late 2008.

Meshal's last official visit to Moscow was in 2007.

Various Hamas officials have at times indicated a willingness to negotiate a ceasefire with Israel, possibly decades long. But Hamas continues to say that it will not recognize Israel officially.

Last month, Meshaal met with the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov in Syria, after which LAvrov said that the Hamas had adopted a more realistic approach since Operation Cast Lead in December 2008.

Senior officials in the Foreign Ministry were furious over the news and said one of the reasons for their displeasure stems from the fact that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was due in Moscow a week later for his first visit, which aimed at beginning talks on upgrading strategic relations between Israel and Russia.