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Mashal to Leave Damascus? Not Likely.

By David Schenker

Haaretz reported this morning that Hamas politburo head Khalid Mashal is leaving Damascus to take up residence in Sudan. The left-leaning Israeli paper picked up the story from the Kuwaiti daily Al Rai’. Mashal last visited Sudan in early August, where he met with President Omar Bashir.

According to Haaretz, “Israeli sources believe that the move signals a serious desire on Syria’s part to advance the negotiations.”

Meanwhile, reports of Mashal’s imminent departure come the same day as Yoram Turbowitz—Israeli PM Ehud Olmert’s chief of staff and the chief negotiator in the Turkish brokered Israeli-Syrian “negotiations”—announced his resignation.

Hamas today denied that Mashal would be relocating to Sudan. In a press statement issued from Damascus, portions of which appeared on the Hamas website, the organization “call[ed] on the media to strive for the truth in its news.”

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