Israel Matzav

Israel rejects Russian - Turkish call to include Hamas in 'peace process'

On Wednesday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Turkish President Abdullah Gul called for including Hamas in the 'peace process.'

At a joint news conference with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in the Turkish capital Ankara, President Abdullah Gul said peace could not be achieved if Hamas was not involved.

"Nobody should be excluded when these talks are held. Unfortunately the Palestinians are divided in two. They must be united and to unite them there must be talks with both sides. The Hamas side won elections in Gaza and so cannot be ignored," Gul said.

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Gul added: "When Turkey talked (with Hamas) it faced threats but it emerged that Turkey was right. You cannot achieve peace by excluding people."

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Medvedev and Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad met Khaled Meshaal, the exiled leader of Hamas, in Damascus on Tuesday.

After his talks with Gul on Wednesday, the Russian leader also indicated that Hamas should be included in the process.

"We agreed to perhaps resolve this problem more actively, attracting all sides that are participating in the conflict, without isolating anyone from the process," Medvedev said.

"What is happening now in the Palestinian administration shows that when there is such a division it's impossible to resolve internal problems - that's why the situation in Palestine itself is getting worse," he said.

Israel's Foreign Ministry rejected the Russian - Turkish call.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs absolutely rejects calls by the presidents of Russia and Turkey to include Hamas in the diplomatic process and expresses its deep disappointment in President Medvedev’s meeting with Khaled Mashal in Damascus.

Hamas is a terrorist organization in every sense of the word; its declared purpose is the destruction of the State of Israel. Members of Hamas have been responsible for the murder of hundreds of innocent civilians, including Russian citizens and other former residents of the CIS. It is totally unacceptable for enlightened nations to divide terrorists into "good" and "bad" according to some geographical division. Terrorists are terrorists, and Israel does not see any difference between the Hamas terror operating against Israel and the Chechen terror operating against Russia. There is no difference between Khaled Mashal and Shamil Basayev.

Israel has always stood behind Russia in its fight against Chechen terrorism and we expect similar treatment in the case of Hamas terrorism against Israel.

They're right about Hamas, but I don't see much of a difference between Hamas and Fatah either. In fact, the 'good terrorist'/'bad terrorist' divide is precisely how Israel differentiates between Fatah and Hamas.

And why would we ever expect the Russians to do the honorable thing by supporting us like we have supported them in Chechnya? All one has to do is to look at the Russians' duplicitous behavior with Iran - among others - to see that they have no sense of morality or trust.

UPDATE FRIDAY 1:01 AM

Israel Radio just reported that Russia has rejected Israel's criticism of Medvedev's meeting with Hamas.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:51 PM