Khaled Meshaal

A memorial service for Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader killed in a Tehran strike, was held Friday at Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

Thousands attended to pay their respects during Friday prayers. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had been scheduled to speak, canceled his appearance at the last minute and declared Friday a national day of mourning for Haniyeh.

The funeral of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was held in Qatar, while memorial services took place in Turkey, Lebanon, Yemen, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

On Friday, as the West braces for potential destabilizing actions in the Middle East, thousands gathered in Doha for prayers before the burial of the head of the Islamist organization, Hamas.

Senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was elected chief of the group's political bureau, a Hamas source said on May 6. 

Haniyeh was selected in polls that were held on May 6 in both the Gaza Strip and Doha simultaneously via video conference. 

He will replace Khaled Meshaal, who has been Hamas political chief since 1996. 

Hamas has presented a new political document that accepts the formation of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, without recognising the statehood of Israel, and says that the conflict in Palestine is not a religious one.

Official statements from around the region on the results of Turkey's Nov. 1 parliamentary election, mostly those congratulating the Justice and Development Party (AKP) on its electoral victory, have continued.

The exiled head of Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, said "positive contacts" have been made towards securing a long-term truce with Israel, in a video posted Friday on an Arab website.

Israel said on August 17 it was not engaged in talks with Hamas following a flurry of media reports suggesting the two sides were discussing a long-term ceasefire.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will visit the Turkish capital of Ankara on Jan. 12 to discuss the repercussions of the U.N. Security Council's failure to adopt a draft resolution setting a deadline for the ending of Israeli occupation, a Palestinian diplomat has said.

Elections songs are not only popular gimmicks used by political parties during campaigns, but those parties are also apparently very possessive about their tunes.

With the general elections approaching, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has kicked off a debate by accusing the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of stealing a song they used back in 1999.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal held a second day of talks in Qatar on Friday, a Palestinian source told AFP, as fighting continued in Gaza.
      
The meeting -- hosted by Qatar's emir -- was a "follow up" to Thursday's talks, which lasted nearly three hours, the source said on condition of anonymity.