Prime Minister of the Hamas authority in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh accepted Saturday an Iranian invitation to attend the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit, despite the protest by the Palestinian leadership, a spokesman for Haniyeh said.
Taher Al-Nouno, the spokesman, said in a short statement that Haniyeh has accepted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's invitation to attend the summit next week.
Earlier this week, an official from President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, Jebril al-Rjoub, told Xinhua that "The Palestinian leadership will not participate in the summit if Haniyeh was invited as a Palestinian official or as prime minister."
Iran is considered the main sponsor of Hamas, the Islamic movement that routed pro-Abbas forces and took over the Gaza Strip in 2007.