Senior Hamas official Ismail Haniyah, who topped the Islamic movement’s national list of ‘Change and Reform’ in the parliamentary elections, said last Friday that Hamas leaders ‘would be delighted’ to visit Russia if President Putin tendered a formal invitation.
Haniyah was responding to Putin’s invitation, made in comments to reporters in Madrid last Thursday, which the Palestine Media Centre (PMC) reported as ‘thus breaking the Israeli and US-led Western diplomatic siege of the Islamic Resistance Movement, which won the Palestinian January 25 legislative elections in a landslide, creating a political crisis with Israel’.
The PMC added that Putin had created ‘a rift with the co-members of the Middle East Quartet and cracks in the anti-Hamas pro-Israeli ranks’.
‘Though’, the PMC noted, ‘he warned that “it is necessary (for Hamas) to leave behind the extremist positions, to recognise Israel’s right to exist and to have relations with the international community”.’
On January 31 Putin had told Russian and foreign media at the Kremlin, Moscow: ‘Our position concerning Hamas differs from the American and western European positions.
‘The foreign ministry of the Russian Federation never declared that Hamas is a terrorist organisation.’
However he said: ‘But this does not mean that we approve and support everything that Hamas does and all the declarations that they have made recently.’
He added: ‘It is necessary to leave behind the extremist positions, to recognise Israel’s right to exist and to have relations with the international community.’
Last Thursday, Putin invited leaders of Hamas to visit Moscow, reportedly during mid-February.
‘Having maintained our contacts with the organisation Hamas, we intend to invite their leaders to Moscow in the near future to search for solutions,’ Putin said.
Explaining his decision during a visit to Spain the Russian leader told reporters in Madrid: ‘Hamas came to power . . . as a result of democratic, legitimate elections, and we must respect the choice of the Palestinian people.’
Putin’s defence minister, Sergei Ivanov, predicted last Friday that ‘leading states’ will follow the Russian lead.
He said: ‘Sometime in the future, many leading states will start supporting Hamas and have some contacts.’
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mikhail Kamynin, last Thursday further explained his leader’s goals.
Russia wants ‘to maintain the peace process on the basis of the roadmap and to continue seeking solutions that are acceptable to Palestine, Israel and the international community,’ he said.
Russia’s special Middle East envoy, Alexander Kalugin, said Russia would attempt to convince Hamas to take up peaceful dialogue, and to recognise Israel’s right to exist.
Kalugin said: ‘We want them to respect all of the past agreements to avoid terror attacks.’
He added: ‘Of course, it is also necessary to embark on the road toward recognition of Israel’s right to exist.’
Russia is a member of the so-called Quartet of Mideast peace negotiators that also includes the United States, the United Nations and the European Union.
The Quartet drafted and sponsored the June 2003 ‘roadmap’ peace plan, which was later adopted by the UN General Assembly and calls on the Palestinians to renounce violence and disarm anti-Israeli occupation groups like Hamas.
Kalugin said that in talks with Hamas, Russia ‘will help promote the principles agreed upon by the Quartet’.
Western agencies predicted that Russia will suggest that Hamas change its position at a meeting with representatives from the organisation.
Meanwhile, the fourth member of the Quartet, the United States, steered clear of criticising Putin for inviting Hamas, and rejected the notion that the Russian president’s remarks undermine the unity or power of the Quartet, but requested clarifications from Moscow.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last Friday to discuss Moscow’s surprise plans to invite Hamas for talks.
The US ambassador in Russia, William J Burns, has requested clarification of the message Putin intends to give to the Hamas officials, State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, told reporters last Friday.
But McCormack said: ‘We have been assured that should the Russian government meet with Hamas, that they would send that – that the meeting would be with the intent of sending that clear, strong message, that Hamas disarms, recognises Israel, and commits to previous Palestinian-Israeli accords.
‘Certainly, we are not going to have any contact with a terrorist organisation. But as for each state, they are going to have to make that sovereign decision,’ McCormack said in Washington.
He rejected the notion that Putin’s remarks would undermine the Quartet’s unity. ‘As a member of the Quartet, we would certainly expect that Russia would deliver that same message,’ McCormack said.
The top US diplomat for the Middle East, David Welch, noted that Russia had agreed to demand Hamas recognise Israel, disarm, renounce violence and keep to previous Palestinian accords with Israel.
‘We would expect that any meeting that occurs with any Palestinian representatives, including Hamas, would emphasise these principles,’ Welch told a news conference.
‘That should be the approach of any country – that is, to drive home what is agreed internationally,’ he added.
Nevertheless, Putin’s invitation to Hamas revealed cracks in the unified stance of the Quartet as shown by their statement after their meeting in London in December, said the PMC.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the international community to give Hamas time to change its 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 organise themselves,’ he said.
Annan also told Hamas to listen to the warnings of the international community, to take upon itself the commitments of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), and to abandon the path of violence and to recognise Israel.
Meanwhile, Putin’s invitation also led to differences among the members of the European Union, another Quartet member, the PMC further noted.
The PMC added: ‘France, in an apparent break with the United States, has signalled support for the Russian meeting and said such talks might advance the position of the Quartet.’
‘We share with Russia the goal to bring Hamas to the positions which allow us to reach the goal of two states living in peace and security,’ French Foreign Ministry spokesman, Denis Simonneau, told reporters in Paris last Friday, but indicated at the same time that Russia had not informed European leaders of its intent to talk with Hamas.
‘As long as we remain within the framework of the goals and principles that we have set for ourselves, we consider that this (Russian) initiative can contribute to advancing our positions,’ he explained.
Separately German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was expected in Israel and the Palestinian territories last Sunday, but a German official insisted last Friday, ‘He is definitely not going to talk to Hamas’.
Meanwhile, EU hopeful and NATO member, Turkey, has announced Ankara will deal with Hamas both as a ‘party’ and as a government.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday said he would invite Hamas in his capacity as a party leader, but when the Islamic Movement assumes power he’ll invite it officially as he had invited previous Palestinian government officials.
However the Israeli reaction to Putin’s move was furious, accusing Moscow of stabbing Israel in the back and slapping Western countries in the face.
Israel’s Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, last Friday criticised Russia’s plan to invite Hamas leaders to Moscow, saying it undercut international pressure on Hamas to recognise Israel.
He warned during a visit to the US of a ‘slippery slope’ embarked upon by Russia, which could grant legitimacy and compromise with Hamas.
A flustered Livni said of Putin: ‘I don’t know if it’s a bad idea for him. I think it’s a bad idea.
‘There is a tendency sometimes among some in the international community to try and understand, to reach agreements, to take a backward step.’
Separately, speaking on Israel Radio, Israeli cabinet minister of education, Meir Sheetrit, accused Putin of ‘stabbing Israel in the back’.
Russia ‘cannot fill any position regarding negotiations with the Palestinians’ unless it changes its position on Hamas, Sheetrit said.
