Sunday May 24, 2009
Russia favours keeping up talks with Hamas - Lavrov
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Russia believes in the need to maintain contacts with the Palestinian group Hamas, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday, despite a cooling of ties between the two sides.
"We are certain that this is needed," Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying after meeting Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in the Syrian capital, where he lives in exile.
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Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the U.N. headquarters in New York May 11, 2009. Russia believes in the need to maintain contacts with the Palestinian group Hamas, Lavrov said on Saturday, despite a cooling of ties between the two sides. (REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton) |
Diplomats in Damascus said new Middle East peace moves by U.S. President Barack Obama may have helped spur the meeting between Lavrov and Meshaal after tension between Hamas and Russia over the last few months.
Lavrov was on a brief visit to Syria to attend a foreign ministers meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and meet Syrian officials.
Russia is the only member of what is known as the Quartet of Middle East negotiators that does not boycott Hamas.
Moscow, however, has criticised Hamas for not doing what Moscow considers enough to achieve reconciliation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction.
Hamas had shown little enthusiasm for Russian plans to hold a Middle East peace conference that would have been a follow-up to one organised by the United States in Annapolis, Maryland in November 2007, partly because the Palestinians would have been represented by Abbas.
The Quartet, which comprises the European Union, United Nations, Russia and the United States, wants Hamas to renounce armed struggle, recognise Israel and accept agreements concluded between the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and Israel.
Copyright © 2008 Reuters
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