Haniyeh: UK expanded links with Hamas

al Bawaba ^ | July 26 2007

[knighthawk]

Hamas leader and the former Palestinian PM said the British government has expanded its links with Hamas in recent weeks. Ismail Haniyeh was quoted Thursday as telling the Guardian newspaper that contacts between Hamas and Britain have increased since they worked together to free Alan Johnston, the BBC Gaza correspondent, who was held captive in Gaza for almost four months.

"I cannot deny that there are now other contacts, other channels of communication with the UK and these involve people of high rank, although I am not personally involved," he told the British daily.

"The main aim of the contacts is to improve our democracy and governance. This is just part of the many contacts that are going on with other governments around the world." He added that Britain wanted to keep the contacts secret.

Officials at the Foreign Office and the British consulate in Jerusalem, however, denied that there had been political links with Hamas and insisted that any contacts had been purely "humanitarian and consular". They said it was possible that Haniyeh had misunderstood the work of British non-governmental organizations.

Haniyeh also said that Hamas would not change its policy of refusing to recognize Israel and said that the Palestine Liberation Organization's recognition of Israel 15 years ago had not led to any improvement in the rights of Palestinians. "In return for recognition, the PLO got the opposite of what they wanted. They got the expansion of the settlements, the confiscation of the Jordan valley and the wall. The problem is therefore not one of recognition but something else," he said.

[knighthawk]

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