Russian minister: Hamas to end attacks against Israel
The supreme leader of Hamas has promised that the militant group will end missile attacks and other violence against Israel, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said today.
“Hamas should use its authority to stop violence including missile attacks against Israel,” Lavrov said at a news conference after his meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal.
“We received confirmation that such steps will be taken,” Lavrov said.
However, Mashaal said at a separate news conference that the group is not ready to recognise Israel.
Renouncing violence and recognising Israel are both key demands of international peace negotiators.
“First of all, Israel has to end its occupation of Palestinian territory and put an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people,” Mashaal said when asked about the recognition issue.
“When Israel does that, the Palestinian people will make their position clear.”
In remarks before his morning meeting with Mashaal, Lavrov called for international support for the power-sharing arrangement between Hamas and Fatah and for lifting an international financial aid blockade against the Palestinian Authority.
However, the Quartet of Middle East peace brokers, which includes Russia, has said recognising Israel is a key condition for resuming aid.
It was not immediately clear if Russia’s expression of support for the Hamas-Fatah power-sharing agreement meant it was stepping back from the Quartet demands.
Russia favours the agreement between Hamas and Fatah to share power because it shows “wisdom, reason and responsibility before the Palestinian people”, Lavrov said at the start of his talks with Mashaal.
“We are pushing for all members of the international community to support this process and make it irreversible, including efforts to lift the blockade,” Lavrov added.
Millions of dollars in crucial foreign aid were cut off after Hamas, which the European Union, United States and others consider a terrorist group, gained control of the Cabinet and the legislature in January 2006 elections.
Since the power-sharing deal worked out this month in Saudi Arabia, however, there has appeared to be a softening in the stance of some EU countries toward Hamas.
French President Jacques Chirac has said he would ask the EU at a summit in March to support plans for a unity government.
But a spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert criticised Lavrov’s remarks.
“This is not the international community’s stand and it’s not the Quartet’s stand,” Miri Eisin said.
Asked if Lavrov’s comments indicated a split in the quartet position, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said during a trip to Israel today that a united response to the Palestinian coalition had not been finalised.
“For the moment we have to see really what a new national unity government would be like, what would be the programme and what would be the actions,” Ferrero-Waldner said. “I think it’s really the right stance to now wait for that.”
Mashaal told reporters after the talks that he and Russian diplomats had discussed ways to free Palestinian financial assets in the United States which have been frozen.
He called on the European Union and the United Nations to “co-operate with Russia and revise the Quartet’s stance” and urged Washington to reconsider its position.
“If the United States continues to insist on the blockade of the Palestinian people, that will only foment hatred of the US policy in the region not only among the Palestinians, but all Arabs, all Muslims,” he said.
Mashaal also assailed Israel for failing to release Palestinian prisoners – the Palestinian condition for the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
“Israel is wholly responsible for a delay in the exchange,” Mashaal said.
He also said that he was going to visit Tehran as part of his foreign trip.
