PA warns EU against Legitimizing Hamas

Al-Manar

(Left: The lovable, Papa Dwaik)

"24/01/2010 The Palestinian Authority over the weekend expressed concern over Hamas's growing attempts to gain recognition from the international community and warned EU representatives against engaging in dialogue with the extreme Islamist movement, the Jerusalem Post said Sunday.

The Israeli daily added that a senior PA official in Ramallah condemned initiatives by some EU citizens and officials to talk to Hamas, accusing them of "ignoring the fact that Hamas had staged a coup in the Gaza Strip." The official warned that meetings between Hamas and Westerners was "playing into the hands" of the movement and undermining efforts to achieve reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. "Those who are trying to legitimize Hamas are harming the Palestinian Authority and any chance of achieving peace with Israel," he said.

Hamas officials, meanwhile, said that their group accepts the two-state solution but only as a temporary one. The warning came following a meeting in Al-Khalil last week between Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Abdel Aziz Dwaik and British businessman David Martin Abrahams, who said that he was on a mission to "facilitate dialogue between Hamas and the international community."

According to JPost, Dwaik stated that Hamas has agreed to the establishment of a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 lines and noted that Hamas senior officials, Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashaal, had already accepted the idea.

Dwaik said that he and other Hamas representatives made it clear during the meeting with Abrahams that Hamas "accepts the de facto existence of Israel but does not recognize the legitimacy of its occupation of Palestinian territories.""