The deposed government of Islamic Hamas movement that rules the Gaza Strip on Wednesday welcomed the ongoing visit of U.S. President Barack Obama to the Middle East, Xinhua reported.
The Foreign Ministry of the Hamas government in Gaza invited Obama to visit the Gaza Strip in an open letter to the U.S. president, who will give a speech from Cairo to the world's Muslims on Thursday.
Ahmed Yousef, a director general in the Foreign Ministry of Hamas, handed over the letter to a U.S. group of sixty intellectual, academic and active figures which has ended a one- day visit to Gaza and would leave for Cairo on Thursday morning.
The letter, which was carried by local news agency Maan, called on Obama to end a three-year-old Israeli blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip and Israeli settlement activities and to hold direct talks with Hamas.
Lifting the blockade, ending the settlement activities and talking to Hamas will be an opportunity to show the goodwill of the new American administration, said the letter.
"Solving the Palestinian cause will be an introduction for any positive and serious relationships between America and both the Arab and Islamic worlds," said the letter.