The Al Quds Al Arabia daily newspaper published news today that Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya submitted a request to include a visit to Jordan during his current regional tour.

He plans to  visit Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Kuwait, Qatar and Iran. This is the first of its kind for the democratically elected Prime Minister since March. However, according to Al Quds Al Arabia, the Jordanian authorities are refusing to receive Prime Minister Haniya.

Since he was elected on 25 January of this year, the Prime Minister has experienced no shortage of problems, the largest being the US-led political and economic blockade. The Israeli government stopped paying taxes owed, and with his new Palestinian government unable to pay salaries, public sector employees went on strike.

Now stepping down from his position in order to form a unity government that may be able to get the blockade lifted, Prime Minister Haniya's problems persist.

Palestinian sources report that Haniya sent a letter to the Palestinian ambassador in the Jordanian capital of Amman four weeks ago to arrange his visit. But it seems that the ambassador's efforts were in vain.

The Jordanian government has in the past also canceled Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Az Zahar's visit during an Arab tour of his own. That was months ago and the Jordanians employed the excuse that Hamas was smuggling weapons through Jordan. However that accusation came just the day before the scheduled visit, was never proven and was quickly dismissed, appearing to many to be a ploy to give cause to cancel the visit.

Prime Minister Haniya arrived in Egypt on Tuesday via the Rafah border crossing to begin his Middle East diplomatic tour.

A border guard speaking on the condition of anonymity reported that Israeli forces at the border blocked the passage of Palestinian diplomatic cars for three hours, those that were accompanying the Prime Minister. The Egyptian and European Union monitors at the border crossing intervened to stop the Israelis from committing the violation.

The Hamas party says that the goal of the Middle East tour is to garner political and material support for the Palestinian people and to follow-up on getting the siege on the Palestinians lifted.

Prime Minister Haniya will meet Arab League Secretary General Amr Mousa to discuss breaking the financial blockade imposed on the Palestinian government. Plans to break the siege were decided upon during this month's meeting of the Arab Foreign Ministers.

Also on the agenda is the international peace conference that the Israelis are refusing to participate in, the stalled peace process, the prisoner exchange, and the Palestinian unity government. This is Prime Minister Haniya's first regional tour since March.