Russia, United Nations and Meretz Warming to Hamas

Russia, United Nations and Meretz Warming to Hamas 11:31 Feb 10, '06 / 12 Shevat 5766 By Ezra HaLevi

Russia, a member of the Quartet group that has consistently pressured Israel to accept the so-called Road Map, stunned Israel Thursday by recognizing Hamas and inviting the terror group to visit.

The United States is still holding out, but stopped short of condemning the decision of Russian President Vladimir Putin to invite a Hamas delegation to Moscow. "Certainly, we are not going to have any contact with a terrorist organization. But as for each state, they are going to have to make that sovereign decision," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Earlier in the week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, together with the U.S., United Nations and European Union, signed a statement demanding Hamas repudiate its call for the destruction of the Jewish state. "There is a fundamental contradiction between armed groups and militia activities and the building of a democratic state. A two-state solution to the conflict requires all participants in the democratic process to renounce violence and terror, accept Israel's right to exist, and disarm," the statement said.

Then, Thursday, Russia President Vladimir Putin announced in Madrid that, "Having maintained our contacts with the organization Hamas, we intend to invite their leaders to Moscow in the near future to search for solutions. We have never considered Hamas a terrorist organization. Hamas came to power ... as a result of democratic, legitimate elections, and we must respect the choice of the Palestinian people." Last week, diplomatic sources denied there was a crisis between Israel and Russia, after Putin said Russia never considered Hamas a terrorist organization, the apparent contradiction with the Quartet stance dismissed as a lack of communication between Putin and Lavrov.

Meanwhile, Hamas has accepted the Russian invitation and displayed no signs of intentions to soften its stance.

"As a member of the Quartet, we would certainly expect that Russia would deliver that same message," McCormack added. "If there are any future meetings between Russian officials and Hamas officials, we would expect that they would deliver that same clear, strong message [that they signed]."

Hamas representatives are reportedly visiting Latin American countries as well, though no Latin American governments have officially confirmed the visits or announced that their governments would receive Hamas leaders.

Newly-appointed Foreign Minister Tzippi Livni, on a whirlwind round of meetings with U.S. officials and members of the UN Security Council, is trying to convince others not to embrace Hamas without requiring the group to meet four conditions: that Hamas recognize Israel, disarm, accept the Road Map and abandon terrorism as a form or negotiation. Insiders report that Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's agreement to pass millions of dollars in tax monies to the Hamas-ruled Palestinian Authority is not helping Livni's case.

"Every sign of weakness and of recognition will be interpreted by Hamas as legitimizing terror," Livni told reporters Thursday.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has come out in favor of giving the Hamas a chance to prove itself to be a "partner for peace." He insisted that the election of the terror group was due to PA Arabs' desire for "a peaceful and stable and well-organized Palestine" and not a preference for Islamic fundamentalism.

Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman called on the government to recall Israel's ambassador to Russia in response to Putin's decision to invite Hamas to visit his country.

Housing Minister Zeev Boim told the Yediot Aharonot newspaper that the Russian president is showing a blatant double standard. "On the one hand, he is fighting the Chechen Muslim rebels, who carry out terror attacks in Russia, while on the other hand, he is embracing ayatollahs in Iran and terror representatives from Gaza …One must only wonder how Putin would feel if we would recognize a state led by the Chechen rebels."

* Article 13 (Peaceful Solutions, Initiatives and International Conferences) "(Peace) initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement." * Article 22 (The Powers which Support the Enemy) claims that Jews "stood behind the French and the Communist Revolutions…[and] establish[ed] clandestine organizations which are spreading around the world, in order to destroy societies and carry out Zionist interests," including "the Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, B'nai B'rith and the like." * The Charter alleges that Jews took "control of the Imperialist states and made them colonize many countries" and "stood behind World War I, so as to wipe out the Islamic Caliphate." * Article 32 (The Attempts to Isolate the Palestinian People) charges that "after Palestine, (Zionists) will covet expansion from the Nile to the Euphrates. Only when they have completed digesting the area on which they will have laid their hand, they will look forward to more expansion, etc. Their scheme has been laid out in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

Emboldened by the Russian move, the Meretz-Yahad Party, headed by Oslo and Geneva Initiative architect Yossi Beilin, said it would seek to open dialogue with Hamas with no preconditions. "We won't place conditions for speaking with Hamas," Beilin said. "If it wants to talk to us, we'll talk with it."

Meanwhile Hamas chief Khaled Meshal praised the Russian decision, calling it courageous.

http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Diplomacy/7775.htm
Israeli Minister calls Putin invitation to Hamas a "stab in the back"
By israelinsider staff and partners February 10, 2006

Minister Meir Sheetrit accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of "stabbing Israel in the back" for saying he planned to invite Hamas leaders for a visit, saying that as a result of its invitatation Moscow was disqualifying itself from any role in future Israeli-Palestinian talks. Russia "cannot fill any position regarding negotiations with the Palestinians" unless it changes its position on Hamas, Sheetrit told Israel Radio.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, in her first junket to the United States, warned in an interview with The New York Sun that some members of the international community were trying to rationalize relations with Hamas. "There is a tendency sometimes among some in the international community to try and understand, to reach agreements, to take a backward step," said the foreign minister.

Russia does not see the Palestinian group Hamas as a terrorist organization, Putin said Thursday, and invited to Moscow leaders of the group responsible for dozens of suicide bombings, in comments during a visit to Spain.

Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh said Hamas leaders would visit Russia if they receive an official invitation.

A top Russian envoy to the Middle East said later Thursday from Moscow that the meeting was intended as a forum to ask the militant Palestinian group to recognize Israel's right to exist.

Israel reacted coldly to Putin's comments, which were sure to spark fears that the unified Western front the Jewish state sought to build against Hamas might be unraveling.

Hamas' surprise Jan. 25 election victory sent shock waves around the world. The group's founding manifesto calls for the destruction of Israel, and it has refused since the election to move away from that position.

Speaking at a joint press conference after meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Putin urged the world not to turn its back on Hamas.

"Hamas came to power ... as a result of democratic, legitimate elections and we must respect the choice of the Palestinian people," he said. "We have to look for solutions for the Palestinian people, for the international community, and also for Israel."

Hamas has itself claimed responsibility for many violent attacks in Israel, but Putin refused to label it a terrorist organization. "We have never considered Hamas a terrorist organization," he said.

The Russian leader said he would invite Hamas representatives to Moscow to participate in talks in the future.

"Having maintained our contacts with the organization Hamas, we intend to invite their leaders to Moscow in the near future to search for solutions," he said, though he gave no details on when the talks might be held.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Andrey Denisov said in New York that "the key items of the agenda of such talks will be prevention and complete stop of any terrorist activities" by Hamas and its "recognition of Israel as an independent state and neighbor and political partner."

The agenda will also include Hamas' rejection of "radical views and positions which are inappropriate," keeping up the momentum of the peace process, and Hamas' cooperation with all countries in the region and "Israel first of all," he said.

"We must engage these people. We must help them to keep order on the territories, to rule, to govern," Denisov said. "It makes much more sense than just rejecting and saying we don't want to deal with that partner."

Alexander Kalugin, Russia's special envoy for the Middle East, said later from Moscow that Russia would ask Hamas to recognize Israel's right to exist.

"There cannot be any dialogue without it," he was quoted as saying by the RIA-Novosti Russian agency. Kalugin said that if Hamas representatives were to come to Russia, the meeting would be in line with agreements reached by the so-called Quartet, a group of Middle East peace negotiators which includes United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.

Responding to Putin's comments, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said from Gaza that members would be "delighted" to visit Russia if they were officially invited.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said late Thursday that Russia's overtures to Hamas were motivated by a desire to prevent "a serious deterioration" of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and to keep the path open for international mediation efforts.

In a statement, he said that Moscow intended to deliver a strong and clear message to the Hamas leadership from the international community about the need to take "responsible decisions that are in the interests of the entire Palestinian people." He did not elaborate.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev responded to Putin's words by saying that a dialogue with Hamas can be established only if it abandons terrorism and recognizes Israel.

Israel was "blindsided" by the Russian announcement, a Jerusalem official told the Sun, as was the Bush administration. In a Washington briefing, the assistant secretary of state for the Near East, David Welch, told reporters that Russia should abide by all the quartet's agreements.

"Any weakness" the world displays toward Hamas, "will result in a negative effect - not only for Israel, but also for the Palestinian people and for the international community," Ms. Livni told the Sun yesterday after meetings in New York with Secretary-General Annan, the ambassadors of the five permanent members of the Security Council, and separately with the American U.N. ambassador, John Bolton.

Zapatero said Spain would support Russia's peace initiatives in the Middle East, adding that Russia must play a decisive role in finding an answer to the international community's standoff with Iran over that country's nuclear ambitions.

"The role of the Russian federation, of President Putin, is going to be decisive to all that affects the dialogue and the peace prospects in the Middle East following the Palestinian elections, as well as the current situation in Iran," Zapatero said. He gave no details

Both leaders also appealed for an end to the violence that has swept the Muslim world over European newspapers' decision to publish caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

The leaders also signed a joint statement on fighting terrorism, stressing that any anti-terrorism measures should observe human rights and adhere to international law.

Russia and some Europeans fear that ending outside support for the Palestinian Authority, which receives most of its funding from donors, would lead to its collapse after Hamas takes over. "Funding is okay for this month," the quartet's representative, James Wolfensohn, said yesterday in Ramallah, adding that the quartet is trying to assure that the Palestinian Authority will remain funded in the future as well.

Annan: Give Hamas a Chance
Chiming in, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the international community to give Hamas time to change it ways before ruling it out as a partner.

"We are at a very early stage of the game," Annan told reporters in New York.

"Hamas won the election but they have never been in government. They need time to organize themselves," he said.

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