http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/st...1722966,00.html

 

Hamas today entered talks with Russian officials insisting it was not about to bow to pressure from the international community and recognise Israel.

 

The exiled Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal, hit hopes that the Moscow talks could persuade Hamas to soften its stance when he said non-recognition was a "decided issue".

 

The US and EU - both large contributors to the Palestinian budget - say the Hamas-led government must recognise Israel if it is to continue to receive international aid.

 

Russia's invitation to Hamas is the group's highest profile foreign engagement since it swept Fatah out of power in the January legislative elections.

 

However, the acting Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, today said the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had promised to limit contact with the organisation in future.

 

Mr Olmert asked the international community to maintain a united front against Hamas, which has waged a suicide bombing campaign against Israeli cities and civilians.

 

"In recent days, I received messages from President Putin, which talk about restrictions of their contacts with Hamas and support the principles we laid before the Palestinians and which have the support of the quartet [of international negotiators working on a peace deal]," Mr Olmert said.

 

In an apparent attempt to avoid further damage to relations with Israel, Mr Putin decided against personally meeting the Palestinian delegation, which will have only a sightseeing tour of the Kremlin on Sunday.

 

An Israeli official told the Associated Press that Moscow was expected to condemn Mr Mashaal's refusal to discuss recognising Israel. The exiled Hamas leader said Israel's "occupation" of Palestinian land would top the agenda in the Moscow talks.

 

"No conditions will be put forward during our visit to Moscow," he said. "We will listen to Russia's position and clarify ours."

 

The Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said Hamas must transform itself into a political structure and integrate its military wing into the legitimate Palestinian security forces if it was to have a future.

 

He told reporters Hamas needed "to reassess its new role, for which maybe it wasn't ready when the elections took place".

 

 

 

I'm curious to see whether or not the US and EU will actually stop funding the PA if Hamas doesn't recognize Israel, like they say they will. My vote goes for "no."

I doubt the UE would but with Bush he might.

Those Hamas folks are some hard-headed fools.

 

on a side note, where do you get your news from? I mean recognise? Organisation? Who's writing these articles?

The source is a British newspaper.

F&$# HAMAS

Well, I guess this also kind of makes the people who said they would moderate themselves in power look kinda bad now...

Those Hamas folks are some hard-headed fools.

 

on a side note, where do you get your news from? I mean recognise? Organisation? Who's writing these articles?

 

The Guardian is a UK newspaper.

Im not opposed to denial of aid until they change their position, even though it hurts the people more than Hamas. Make cooperation the only path to prosperity and hence create election capital.

Does Israel recognize Palestine and Hamas as the Palestinian leader?

well considering the fact that israel just finished withdrawing troops from what is now palestinian land, iwould say they definitely recognize the palestinian state. What they shouldnt recognize is hamas as the leaders of the state unless hamas starts playing nice. After all these years israel was willing to get into diplomacy and now the palestinians are the ones trying to go backwards