AMMAN (Ma'an) -- Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal will visit Jordan on Sunday with the Emir of Qatar, a Jordanian official said Tuesday.
"King Abdullah (II of Jordan) will host Crown Prince of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Tamim al-Thani and Mashaal to express brotherly relations," information minister Rakan al-Majali told AFP.
The official Qatari news agency said that Mashaal spoke with the emir on Tuesday to update him on recent Palestinian developments.
Hamas officials in Gaza announced the upcoming visit in December, saying it was brokered by Qatari leaders to mend relations with Jordan, which cut ties with the Islamist movement over a decade ago and had banned Mashaal from visiting the country.
"Jordan and Hamas will turn a new page in their relations, but that will not be at the expense of the relations between Jordan and the Palestinian Authority which Jordan considers a representative of the Palestinian people," al-Majali said on Tuesday.
He added that the reopening of Hamas offices in Jordan would not be discussed as Hamas had not requested they do so.
Jordan's newly appointed prime minister, Awn Khasawneh, announced in his first statement that his government is planning to maintain constructive communications with Hamas, and pledged to fix the "constitutional error" which banished Hamas in 1999.
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