Khaled Mashaal heads to Damascus for 'private' visit

A source close to the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement in Doha said that the chairman of the movement's political bureau, Khaled Mashaal, left Qatar on Thursday for Damascus for a private visit to Syria.

In Damascus, Hamas political bureau member Imad al-Alami abstained from asserting or denying whether Mashaal had arrived in Damascus.

In statement he made earlier to the Qatari al-Jazira satellite television, Mashaal said, "We have some visits to pay to several Arab countries in order to make consultations connecting to the situation in the Middle East."

In November, the Jordanian governments expelled four of Hamas leaders, including Mashaal, to Qatar. They were accused of violating an implicit agreement permitting the presence of the movement in Jordan.