Secretary-General Amr Moussa of the Arab League said Monday that Hamas is not a terror organization. Interviewed by the Washington Post in Cairo, where he is a leading candidate to be Egypt's next leader, Moussa said, "The view that Hamas is a terrorist organization is a view that pertains to a minority of countries, not a majority. Being a terrorist is not a stigma forever."
Regarding Israel's closure of Gaza, he said, "We should have insisted and used Egyptian-Israeli relations to try and undo and put an end to the siege that caused a lot of suffering to the people of Gaza. The whole world has said exactly what I am saying — that the siege has to come to an end."
On Egypt's growing relations with Iran and its nuclear development program, Moussa said, "The nuclear issue in the Middle East means Israel and then Iran."