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| Britain |
| UK admits contacts with Hamas |
| 2005-06-07 |
| British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who visits the Middle East on Tuesday, said his diplomats had twice met officials linked to the Palestinian militant group Hamas but were still banned from contact with the leadership. "On each of those occasions our staff have spelt out to the elected official ... our position overall in respect of no dealings with Hamas as an organisation as long as it continues to support violence," Straw told BBC radio. "We are not dealing with Hamas leadership and won't deal with them until they have done two fundamental things, which is dropped their charter committing themselves to the destruction of Israel and given up violence as a legitimate tool," he said. Both Britain and the European Union have declared Hamas a terrorist group and rejected contacts with its leadership -- but have admitted having contacts with Hamas members who were elected in recent Palestinian municipal elections. U.S. officials say they may be open to contacts with some Hamas political affiliates. The Israeli government reacted with disappointment to Straw's remarks on contacts with elected town councillors linked to Hamas. "We see Hamas as part of the problem not as part of the solution," a foreign ministry spokesman said. "We hope that the international effort will be to strengthen the moderates and to isolate the extremists". Hamas in turn rejected international demands that it abandon its weapons. "Hamas will never abandon its arms at any time and its legetimate resistance in defending the Palestinian people will never stop as long as occupation exists on the land of Palestine," said spokesman Mushir al-Masri. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 Bet they don't see any similarities to the IRA either. Funny how that works. |
| Posted by: PlanetDan 2005-06-07 15:56 |