Hamas's top leader, Khaled Mashaal, has sent a letter to U.S. President-elect Barack Obama in which he expressed optimism regarding a possible rapprochement between Hamas and the United States, Israeli website The Blue Eye reported Sunday, crediting "Palestinian sources."
Mashaal sent the letter through a Hamas official named Muhammad Nazal, who gave it to "a senior person" during a visit by Nazal to Qatar.
Mashaal reportedly asked Obama to recognize Hamas and its "great influence in the Palestinian arena" in order to end the conflict with Israel. Hamas's leader wrote that he would agree to a cease fire with Israel "for 30 years or longer" if it agrees to withdraw from the territory it gained in 1967.
Mashaal also called upon the President-elect to arrange a meeting between senior American and Hamas officials "at any time and any place" the U.S. chooses, in order to discuss a solution of the Hamas-Fatah dispute as well as the conflict with Israel.
There has been no confirmation of the report from other sources.