Tehran denies reports that Hamas leader is invited to the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement

The Prime Minister of the Palestinian movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, was not invited to the summit of the Non-Alignment Movement in Tehran, the organizers of the summit announced today. "At the moment, the head of the Hamas government was neither invited by the Islamic Republic of Iran nor by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in person," Interfax quotes the representative of the Iranian delegation to the summit, Mohammad Reza Forkani, as saying.

According to him, only the head of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, has been invited to the summit. Meanwhile, a Hamas
spokesman said earlier that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had invited Haniyeh to take part in the summit with the status of "special guest."

This information has caused dissatisfaction on the part of the Head of the Palestinian Autonomy, Mahmoud Abbas, who threatened to boycott the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement if Haniyeh is present at the summit.

"President Mahmoud Abbas will not participate in the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement if Ismail Haniyeh is present there. And the status of Ismail Haniyeh's presence is not important," the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Palestine, Riyad al-Maliki, was reported as saying by the television channel Al-Arabiya.