Haaretz
Adar 5, 5766
MOSCOW - Palestinian election
winner Hamas will not recognize Israel despite pressure from Russia to do
so during talks in Moscow, a senior leader of the Islamic militant group
said on Saturday.
Moussa Abu Marzouk, Hamas's deputy political
leader, told Reuters in an interview that recognizing Israel would negate
all Palestinian rights.
"It means a negation of the Palestinian
people and their rights and their property, of Jerusalem and the holy
sites, as well as negation of their right of return. Therefore the
recognition of Israel is not on the agenda," Abu Marzouk said.
"We
believe that Israel has no right to exist", he added later in remarks to
an Arab audience. "Hamas will never take such a step."
On Friday,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a
Hamas delegation during
a first day of talks it must recognise Israel's right to exist and abide
by interim peace deals.
Russia: Hamas agrees to year-long
ceasefire with Israel
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.
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.