Hamas leader likely to visit Moscow at start of 2019 - deputy minister

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas is likely to visit Moscow at the start of next year, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on Friday, according to the RIA news agency.

Bogdanov said Moscow was also ready to organise a meeting between Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, which runs the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank.

(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Writing by Polina Nikolskaya; Editing by Kevin Liffey)