Mashaal promotes Palestinian power-sharing deal

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hamas's supreme leader, Khaled Mashaal, on Monday urged the world to cooperate with the Palestinian government following a power-sharing deal with Fatah and pressed for the removal of an international aid embargo, Russian news agencies reported. Visiting one of the few nations with a stake in Middle East peace activity where he is welcome, Mashaal thanked Russia for its support on the aid issue, the reports said. The visit appeared to be part of a Palestinian effort to enlist more vocal backing from Moscow after failing to persuade the European Union to end the embargo. In the second visit to Russia by a high-level Hamas delegation since the group came to power in parliamentary elections last year, Mashaal suggested that that the Quartet of Mideast peace brokers - the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations - should embrace the deal for a unity government and lift the aid embargo, the reports said.