Hamas announced that its Politburo Chief Khaled Mashaal won’t seek a new term

The Palestinian resistance group Hamas announced in a statement issued on Saturday that its Politburo Chief Khaled Mashaal won't seek a new term.

According to the official statement, Mashaal, who has served as politburo chief for the past 16 years, announced his decision during a recent Shura Council meeting and said he would continue serving the resistance group and the Palestinian people in other ways.

The Shura Council reportedly met in Sudan during Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's visit there.

In the statement from Hamas' official e-mail account, the Palestinian group urged him to reconsider his decision. "The movement urges (Mashaal) to reconsider, and to leave this issue to the Shura Council, with full respect to his wishes (not to run again), considering this is a public matter that the Hamas institutions should decide, and not an individual person," the statement said.

Palestinian sources say Haniyeh is considering running for Hamas politburo chief. The sources told Italian news agency AKI that Haniyeh's visits to Sudan, Egypt, Tunis and Turkey over the past month were aimed at raising his profile among leaders in the region ahead of elections in Hamas.