A Hamas delegation in Moscow
A Hamas delegation is currently visiting Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday at her daily press conference without further details. According to the RIA Novosti news agency, citing a Palestinian source, Abou Marzouk, a member of the political committee of the Palestinian Islamist movement, is part of this delegation.
Hamas is not considered a terrorist organization in Russia and its representatives have already made two trips to Moscow in the past year. The first took place in September 2022 under the leadership of the head of the organization, Ismaël Haniyeh, who spoke with Sergei Lavrov; the second in March with his deputy Saleh Al-Arouri.
Russia counts twenty nationals among the victims of the October 7 attack and three others are said to be held hostage in Gaza, but Moscow has taken a clearly anti-Israel position on the matter. Vladimir Putin even waited more than a week to call Benjamin Netanyahu, and he compared the siege of Gaza to the blockade of Leningrad, which claimed around 800,000 lives during World War II.
The RIA Novosti news agency also writes that the Hamas Politburo “highly appreciated the position of Russia and China,” especially the veto of these two countries on the draft resolution presented by the United States. United in the UN Security Council.
Maria Zakharova also announced that Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani, who is in charge of nuclear power negotiations, was also in the Russian capital and spoke with Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galouzin.
Benoît Vitkine (Moscow, correspondent)