September 03, 2008	Wednesday	Ramazan 2, 1429

DAMASCUS, Sept 2: The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Tuesday denied that its political supremo Khaled Meshaal had moved from his self-imposed exile in Syria to Sudan.

“The movement totally denies media reports saying that Khaled Meshaal has left Syria for Sudan,” a Hamas official said in a statement. “These reports are false.”

Meshaal early August paid a visit to Sudan to express solidarity with President Omar al-Beshir after the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court requested an arrest warrant for the Sudanese leader over alleged war crimes.

However, Hamas said Meshaal had since returned to Damascus.

In Khartoum, a spokesman for Beshir too denied that Meshaal had moved to Sudan. “We have no information about that,” said Mahgoub Fadl.

Israeli media on Monday, quoting a Kuwaiti newspaper, reported that Meshaal had left Syria to live in Sudan allegedly because of the relaunch of talks between Syria and Israel.

The two countries announced in May that they had resumed indirect peace talks brokered by Turkey after an eight-year freeze. Four rounds of talks have taken place so far and a fifth is due soon, according Israeli public radio.

Meshaal in June had said the Turkish-brokered peace talks would not affect relations between Hamas and Syria, which is home to a number of Palestinian groups.—AFP