BBC: Hamas 'sends Barack Obama letter'

[Jackeens]

The Palestinian group Hamas has sent a letter addressed to the US president via a US politician visiting Gaza, a senior UN official has said.

UN relief agency chief Karen Abu Zayd told the BBC the letter had been received by the UN and passed on.

She did not say if Senator John Kerry had accepted it, and there were no details about the letter's contents.

The US views Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in 2007, as a terrorist organisation and will not deal with it.

A former presidential candidate, Mr Kerry was visiting Gaza with US congressmen Brian Baird and Keith Ellison in the first such visit to the Hamas-run Strip since 2007.

The men are not likely to meet Hamas.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7898801.stm

[Jennicut]

1. CNN reported that Kerry accepted the letter and will give it to the President

I am very curious at to what it says.

[blm]

3. this story is huge - very few news reports on it, though.

.

[blm]

2. Interesting trio to be on this trip together, too.

A foreign policy heavyweight and tough dove (Kerry). First Muslim congressman (Ellison). Clinical psychologist/congressman (Baird).

Want to bet there is a whole lot more going on than just a regular, factfinding mission?

[Hell Hath No Fury]

4. Oh yeah.

This didn't just magically happen out of the blue -- it is clear to me they are laying some serious advance groundwork for something.

And I like it.

[blm]

5. Because of pisspoor US newsmedia few know that Kerry continued to meet with leaders shunned by Bush

consistently over the years. Especially Syria's Assad.

Something's definitely up....Kerry has approached Assad in the past to become an active part of solving the problems in the region and I imagine he has all the room in the world to make that happen now, with Obama as President. Bush wouldn't even meet with Kerry after his meetings with Assad.

[Kdillard]

6. Very interesting. I am very curious as to the contents of the

letter and how the President will respond.