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“Hamas,
in turn, was keen on meeting the
US
and EU officials to make sure that they don’t hear one-sided
version of the events,” said Abu Zehri
|
By
Yasser Al Banna, IOL Correspondent
GAZA
CITY
, December 15 (IslamOnline.net) – The United States and the European
Union had been in contact with Hamas over the past few months despite
having listed it as a “terrorist” organization, the spokesman for
the Palestinian resistance movement confirmed on Tuesday, December 14.
“The
US
administration held indirectly secret talks with Hamas,” Sami Abu
Zehri, told IslamOnline.net.
He
said the
US
embassy in
Israel
is used to sending a representative or a government journalist for the
talks to take the pulse of Hamas.
Abu
Zehri further stressed that EU officials have been also in
“direct” contacts with Hamas.
Khaled
Meshaal, the Hamas politburo chief, further confirmed to the BBC on
Tuesday that the
US
and the EU were negotiating behind closed doors.
“The
European Union, which put Hamas on a list of terrorist organizations,
is still continuing communications and meetings,” Meshaal said.
“The
American administration, which also put us on terror lists and
criticizes us, contacted us in the past months.”
The
United States
was quick to categorically deny the talks.
“We
don't conduct business with designated terrorist organizations. Hamas
is a designated terrorist organization,” Agence France-Presse (AFP)
quoted US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher as telling
reporters.
EU
foreign policy chief Javier Solana was reported last month that he had
held face-to-face talks with the movement, but later he backed down
the reports.
Key
Role
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|
“Israeli
society has now realized that Hamas is a popular movement and not
a small toothless group,” said Sane
|
Abu
Zehri said Hamas’s increasing and influential role played on both
the political and resistance landscapes has prompted the
US
and EU talks.
“Hamas,
in turn, was keen on meeting the
US
and EU officials to make sure that they don’t hear one-sided version
of the events and counterweight the Zionist media campaigns,” he
told IOL.
“We
needed to tell them the fact that the Israeli occupation is the main
reason of tensions in the region and that the Palestinian resistance
operations are nothing but self-defense in the face of the incessant
Israeli aggressions.”
On
the
US
and EU denials, Abu Zehri called them an expected “diplomatic”
answer given under increasing pressures from the Zionist lobby.
Soaring
Popularity
Palestinian
Members of Parliament and Israeli Arab Members of Knesset, for their
parts, said the Israeli government, the
US
and the EU have all come to realize the soaring popularity enjoyed by
Hamas in the occupied Palestinian territories.
They
agreed that the three parties wanted to contain, demilitarize the
group and integrate it into the political process.
“If
talks with Hamas would bring about security to the Israeli citizens,
Israel
would go for that, but if they proved futile, it would carry on with
its deadly attacks and assassinations of Hamas activists,” MP Emad
Al-Falluji told IOL.
“They
are trying now to turn the movement from being a military opposition
group to a political opposition group.”
“Israeli
society has now realized that Hamas is a popular movement and not a
small toothless group,” agreed MK Taleb Al-Sane.
Leading
Hamas official Mahmmoud Al-Zahhar signaled on December 5 the
possibility of joining
the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), provided that it
amended its charter in line with proposals put forward by his group.
Sane
added that the release of Hamas political leader Hassan Yusuf was a
proof that
Israel
was now considering Hamas as a political movement.
“The
[Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon government would give the
Palestinian Authority the chance to convince Hamas of hammering out a
new truce with Israel in return for not targeting the group's
activists.”
The
2003 ceasefire collapsed after
Israel
assassinated
prominent Hamas leader Ismail Abu Shanab.
Hamas
celebrates Tuesday the 17th anniversary of its
establishment by late Sheikh Ahmad Yassin in 1978.
Israel
assassinated in the small hours of March 22 Sheikh
Yassin.
