Hamas Adviser Writes Letter to Obama

In summary, a Hamas adviser wrote a letter to Obama but Hamas says the adviser is a fringe guy, so the letter doesn't represent Hamas (Hamas has fringe folks?), but no one knows what's in the letter, which was given to John Kerry, visiting the Gaza Strip, who passed it on to the U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem, who will pass it on to Washington.

JERUSALEM, Feb 20 (Reuters) - A Hamas adviser reached out to U.S. President Barack Obama in a personal letter that was passed from a top U.N. official to a high-ranking U.S. senator during a rare visit to the Gaza Strip, officials said on Friday.

The enclave's Hamas rulers disavowed the letter, which the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem will send on to Washington for review.

It was the first known overture of its kind since Obama became president last month, but it is unclear whether it will reach him. A U.S. boycott of Hamas has not changed under the new administration.

Karen AbuZayd, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), gave the letter addressed to Obama, along with other materials, to Sen. John Kerry, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, during his brief visit to the Gaza Strip on Thursday.

Committee spokesman Frederick Jones said Kerry left Gaza and only learned later about the origin of the letter after media reports quoted AbuZayd and other U.N. officials as saying it had been written by Hamas.

UNRWA said the letter had been left by Hamas at the front of its compound in Gaza City. UNRWA officials had no immediate comment on why Kerry had not been told directly that the letter had been sent by Hamas.

A Palestinian official familiar with the matter said the letter was authored by Ahmed Youssef, a Hamas foreign ministry adviser, and that he acted on his own behalf, rather than as a representative of the Islamist group which rules the Gaza Strip.

Youssef has made appeals to Western leaders in the past to try to soften their opposition to Hamas, which the United States and the European Union consider a terrorist organisation. Read the rest.