GAZA, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The visit of Ismail Haniyeh, the politburo chief of Islamic Hamas movement, to Russia scheduled next week has been postponed, a senior Hamas official said on Thursday.
Musa Abu Marzooq, member of the movement's politburo, said in a press statement that the postponement of Haniyeh's visit to the Russian capital was made in a telephone conversation between him and Russia's envoy to the Middle East, Mikhail Bogdanov.
"The visit of Haniyeh to Moscow was postponed because of the full schedule of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov," he said, adding that the Russian side explained that they are still interested in receiving Haniyeh in Moscow.
Abu Marzooq also said that he discussed with Bogdanov about the recent developments related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the stalled internal Palestinian reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah party.
In November, Hamas had announced that Haniyeh received an official invitation from Russia to visit Moscow on Jan. 15, as Russia has kept good ties with the movement that has been ruling the Gaza Strip since 2007.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian ambassador to Russia Abdul Hafiz Noofal told Voice of Palestine Radio on Thursday that postponing Haniyeh's visit to Moscow was due to the current feuds between Hamas and Fatah in the Gaza Strip.
"The Russians apologized to Hamas movement and told their leaders that the visit has been postponed and a new appointment will be arranged later," said Noofal, referring to the Russian role of pushing forward to ending the internal Palestinian division.
