Haaretz
Adar 4, 5766
MOSCOW - The Russian Foreign
Ministry on Friday said Hamas has agreed to a year-long ceasefire with
Israel, on condition of it refraining from any use of force during that
time.
"Hamas confirmed its willingness not to withdraw from the
March 2005 inter-Palestinian agreement on a cease-fire on the
understanding that Israel will also refrain from use of force," a Foreign
Ministry statement said.
The agreement between Palestinian militant
factions was struck in Egypt last year following the Sharm al-Sheikh
summit where Israel and the Palestinian Authority signed a ceasefire
agreement.
On Friday the U.S. described the meeting between
Russian diplomats and Hamas leaders as a positive development.
The
meeting in Moscow "served the purpose to deliver the message," State
Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said. "We think it's important that
Hamas get the message loud and clear."
"We have a common front and
a united purpose to make clear to Hamas that it has before it a clear and
unambiguous choice," Ereli said.
Responding calmly to Hamas'
refusal in Moscow to soften its hostility to Israel, Ereli said: "We'll
judge Hamas by its actions.?
A Hamas leader in Moscow, Ezzat
El-Resheq, said the Islamic militant group would look positively on an
extension of the ceasefire, but only if Israel "ended its aggression,
assassinations and arrests and freed Palestinian prisoners".
"The
ball is now in Israel's court," he told Reuters.
Russian FM:
Hamas must recognize Israel
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov told Palestinian election winner Hamas that it must
recognize Israel's right to exist, Interfax news agency
said.
Lavrov, speaking after talks with the leadership of the
Islamist militant group, said he had insisted that all the views laid out
by the Quartet group, that includes the United States, the European Union
and the United Nations, must be respected.
"That means above all
the need to stick by all existing agreements, the need to recognize the
right of Israel to exist as a partner in negotiations (and) the need to
reject all armed methods of settling political questions," Interfax quoted
him as saying.
Meanwhile, South Africa has joined a growing list of
countries inviting Hamas leaders for talks, raising Israeli concerns that
the international front against the Islamic militants is
crumbling.
Hamas officials arrived in Russia for first talks with a
major foreign power on Friday but poured cold water on hopes of a peace
breakthrough by saying they were firm in their refusal to recognize
Israel.
"The issue of recognition is a done issue. We are not going
to recognize Israel," Mohammed Nazzal, a senior official accompanying the
group's exiled political leader Khaled Meshal, told reporters after their
delegation arrived in Moscow.
Meshal said Friday that Israel must
withdraw from territories occupied in 1967 and allow return of Palestinian
refugees if it wants peace.
Meshal said that if Israel took these
steps, "our movement will have taken a big step toward peace."
He
welcomed the outcome of high-level talks with Russian officials - in which
Hamas faced pressure to soften its hostility to Israel and abandon
violence.
The talks were "good, constructive and open," Meshal said
after meeting with Lavrov and other Russian officials.
The Russian
foreign minister was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency that
Hamas was ready to honor all the agreements the Palestinian administration
had undertaken as part of the Middle East peace process if Israel made
steps to meet it halfway.
Lavrov also said the Hamas leadership had
agreed to allow international officials to monitor their budget funding,
according to Interfax and RIA-Novosti.
"They are ready to create a
mechanism of international oversight," Lavrov was quoted as saying. No
further details were provided.
Lavrov: Hamas must change or will
have no future
Earlier, speaking to reporters ahead of his talks
with the Hamas delegation, Lavrov said the organization will have no
future if the Palestinian militant group fails to transform itself into a
political structure.
Lavrov said there was a "need for Hamas having
been elected to a political body to transform itself into a political
party and to be sure that the military wing of Hamas become a legitimate
part of the Palestinian security structures."
Lavrov urged
patience, saying that "we don't expect that Hamas will do all this and
change itself overnight... It will be a process, hopefully not as long as
the process in Great Britain regarding Northern Ireland," he
added.
He said that Hamas needs "to reassess its new role, for
which maybe it wasn't ready when the elections took
place."
Putin won't meet Hamas delegates
In an apparent
attempt to avoid damaging relations with Israel further, President
Vladimir Putin decided against personally meeting the Palestinian
delegation, which will only have a sightseeing tour of the Kremlin on
Sunday.
An Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity
because of the sensitivity of Russia-Israeli relations said Israel also
expects Moscow to clearly condemn Meshal's refusal on Friday to discuss
recognizing Israel.
Russia's invitation, extended by Putin, was
the first crack in an international front against the group, considered a
terrorist organization by Israel, the European Union and United States.
Hamas has sent dozens of suicide bombers to Israel and does not accept the
presence of a Jewish state in the Middle East.
Although it deals a
blow to U.S.-led efforts to isolate Hamas since it swept Palestinian
elections in January, Russia's mediation is seen by some in the West as a
chance to press the group into embracing more moderate views.
After
initially condemning Moscow's overtures toward Hamas, Israel adopted a
wait-and-see attitude on the talks' results.
The Hamas-Russia talks
were being closely monitored by Washington, the road map's chief
patron.
"Our position is that if you are going to meet with a
terrorist group, you should make it clear to them that their way of doing
business is unacceptable, that their philosophy is contrary to the norms
of the civilized world, and that they should get with the program," U.S.
State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said.
By inviting
Hamas to Moscow, Putin is seen as trying to boost Russia's diplomatic
clout in the Middle East, on the wane since the Soviet Union
fell.
South Africa invites Hamas for talks
South Africa
invited Hamas for talks, the country's foreign ministry said
Thursday.
No timetable has been set for the visit, Hamas spokesman
Sami Abu Zuhri said.
"We would be concerned that giving legitimacy
to an unreformed Hamas could stifle the possibility that the movement will
transform itself from a terrorist organization to a political party,"
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.