Posted on 05/31/2010 1:38:28 PM PDT by libh8er
The United States is sending a succession of envoys to engage with Hamas but lacks the bravery to talk to the Islamist movement openly, its leader, Khaled Meshal, said in an interview with the Guardian.
Meshal praised President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia for meeting him in Damascus and the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, for hosting the discussion 10 days ago. He told Medvedev that the US was also talking to him. "I thanked him for that meeting and told him the Americans contact us, but are not brave enough to do so openly," said Meshal. "I am confident that in the very near future, everyone will realise that they will have to deal with Hamas."
The claim that the US is engaging with a group it lists as a terrorist organisation will upset the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, whose security forces have locked up and allegedly tortured leading Hamas members in the West Bank..
But four years into Israel's blockade of Gaza, the revelation could be seen as a sign that cracks are opening up in the western consensus that Hamas should remain isolated. Russia is a member of the Middle East Quartet, which demands recognition of the state of Israel as a precondition to a seat at the negotiating table.
Hamas says that recognising Israel was one of the Fatah leadership's biggest mistakes, and resulted in 17 years of fruitless negotiation. Meshal predicted that the conditions, which he called a trap for the Quartet itself, would change.
The Hamas leader claimed many western officials recognised that the blockade of Gaza had failed and the time had come to end it.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Not the biggest surprise.
Day by day the incompetence of this administration is exposed.
I feel for you guys in the US. Being leaderless must be frightening and frustrating.
Where you from?
The fact there is a Hamas leader somewhere alive and breathing is such a total pi$$ off! I wish God would set things right,,just a little bit.
Canada
Code pink?
There are probably enough terror cells here in the US already, Obama or his joke in the DOJ, Holder, could talk and negotiate our surrender with them. Crying and whining might work.
ah, yes, you have a government smart enough to stay out of socializing home loans.
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