Hamas claims to be in secret talks with five European governments
Hamas leaders have told the news agency ‘Associated Press’ that they are in secret political talks with five European Union countries. Osama Hamdan, a Beirut-based senior official of the Islamist group which runs the Gaza Strip, refused to say which countries and on which level, but he told AP: „I can say it’s an important level, without defining whether it’s junior or senior, and the channels are working. It’s not just a contact. It’s channels of talking.” Hamdan is the first Hamas official to speak publicly and in some detail about purported contacts with Western governments.
In Gaza, three Hamas officials told the US news agency that Britain, France and the Netherlands were among the countries involved in backchannel talks. Two others also mentioned Austria, and one added Sweden to the list, according to AP. The governments of these countries denied any such contacts.
The unnamed Hamas officials added that talks had been held in Gaza, Lebanon, Egypt and Turkey. Officially, the European Union and the US consider Hamas a terror ist group and refuse to deal with it unless it renounces violence and recognizes Israel.
Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006 and seized control of the Gaza Strip by force a year later. Since then, the West has demanded that the group recognize Israel and renounce violence, in exchange for international acceptance. Hamdan said European officials keep bringing up the issue of recognition of Israel in backchannel talks, but that Hamas would not budge. The Hamas founding charter calls for the destruction of Israel.
