Hamas Tour ’06

Hamas officials have been busy racking up passport stamps. Visit to Russia? Check. Sudan? Check. Norway? Check. Iran and Turkey? Check, check. China? Almost there. Just over a week ago, Robert Zoellick told the House International Relations Committee that he'd heard a nasty rumor that China might be inviting Hamas to Beijing, but that he'd ...

Hamas officials have been busy racking up passport stamps. Visit to Russia? Check. Sudan? Check. Norway? Check. Iran and Turkey? Check, check. China? Almost there.

Hamas officials have been busy racking up passport stamps. Visit to Russia? Check. Sudan? Check. Norway? Check. Iran and Turkey? Check, check. China? Almost there.

Just over a week ago, Robert Zoellick told the House International Relations Committee that he'd heard a nasty rumor that China might be inviting Hamas to Beijing, but that he'd taken care of it:

[S]ome of you might have seen there was a report by the new foreign minister of Hamas for the Palestinian government sort of saying he was going to go to China. I raised this with the Chinese promptly. Within two days, the Chinese said "we didn't invite him."

Huh. That's funny. Because on Wednesday, Beijing did invite Hamas to attend the Arab-Chinese Forum in China at the end of this month. Israel is so upset at the invitation that the Chinese ambassador in Jerusalem was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in protest. Perhaps Zoellick should make another call.

Carolyn O'Hara is a senior editor at Foreign Policy.

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