WORLD NEWS | Mon May 1, 2017 | 12:42pm EDT

Hamas to soften stance on Israel, Muslim Brotherhood: Arab sources

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Tom Finn | GAZA/DOHA

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas will drop its longstanding call for Israel's destruction as well as its association with the Muslim Brotherhood in a new policy document to be issued on Monday, Gulf Arab sources said.

Hamas's move appears aimed at improving relations with Gulf Arab states and Egypt, which label the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, and mending a rift with the main Palestinian faction headed by President Mahmoud Abbas.

It comes two days before Abbas is due in Washington, and days after President Donald Trump told Reuters he may travel to Israel this month and sees no reason whatsoever why there should not be peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

But the document, to be announced later on Monday, will still reject Israel's right to exist and back "armed struggle" against it, the Gulf Arab sources told Reuters.

Israel rejected the reported shift, calling it an attempt by Hamas to delude the world that it was becoming a more moderate group.

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