Iran denies that Hamas has been invited to Tehran’s non-aligned summit.

Iran denies that Hamas has been invited to Tehran’s non-aligned summit.(AA).The Hamas premier in Gaza has not been invited to this week’s summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran, Iran said on Sunday, heading off a threatened boycott by the Palestinian president. “Up to now, no official invitation from the Islamic Republic of Iran and the person of (President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad has been sent to Hamas’s popular prime minister (Ismail Haniya),” the Iranian spokesman for the summit said. “Only (Palestinian president) Mahmud Abbas has been invited to the NAM summit,” Mohammad Reza Forqani said in a statement quoted by the ISNA and Mehr news agencies. Hamas said on Saturday that Haniya would take part in the summit in Tehran on Thursday and Friday, “in accordance with the invitation from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,” according to a statement by his spokesman.
Abbas, whose internationally recognized Palestinian Authority is at odds with Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers, responded with a warning through Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Malki that he would stay away from the summit if Haniya went. Forqani’s statement that Haniya had never been invited appeared an effort to spare Iran embarrassment over an Abbas boycott. Iran is a fierce supporter of the Palestinian cause and an arch-foe of Israel. On Saturday, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, told reporters that Iran has “the duty to invite all (NAM) members” and that Abbas would take part and “some special guests” had also been invited. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will boycott the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Iran if his Islamist rival Ismail Haniya of Hamas attends, a minister told AFP on Saturday. “President Abbas will not take part in the Non-Aligned summit if Haniya is present, no matter what form his attendance takes,” foreign minister Riyad al-Malki said in Ramallah, headquarters of the Palestinian Authority. A Hamas spokesman earlier on Saturday said Haniya would attend the August 30-31 conference in Tehran “in accordance with the invitation from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.” The statement from Taher al-Nunu, a spokesman for the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, did not say when Haniya would leave the Palestinian enclave for the conference or give any further details. In Iran, foreign ministry spokesman Rahmin Mehmanparast said Haniya had been invited to the gathering as a “special guest.”Read the full story here.