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US calls Russia-Hamas meeting ‘useful’

* Former Russian PM calls Hamas victory a ‘complete fiasco’ for US

WASHINGTON: Washington called “useful” on Friday a meeting between Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov and officials of Hamas, noting that Moscow reiterated the demands of the Middle East quartet to the Palestinian leaders.

The meeting, which Washington originally greeted cooly, “served the purpose to deliver the message ... that the expectations of the international community are that (Hamas) will renounce terror, recognise Israel and accept obligations and commitments made by the Palestinian Authority,” said Adam Ereli, a State Department spokesman.

“This is a choice that we all want Hamas to make. So to the extent that hearing it directly and forcefully from the Russians can serve that purpose, then that’s all well and good,” Ereli said.

The quartet - the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union - have insisted since Hamas’s surprise election win in January that the group end attacks on Israel and acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.

Without these steps, the quartet has threatened to cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority.

Earlier Washington had greeted Moscow’s decision to receive Hamas leaders coldly, calling for “clarifications” from Russia.

‘Complete fiasco’: The shock victory of the radical group Hamas in Palestinian elections was a “complete fiasco” for US diplomacy in the Middle East, Yevgeny Primakov, a former Russian prime minister and respected expert on the region, said Saturday.

The Hamas win in the January 25 elections marked “a complete fiasco of US attempts to export democracy to the Middle East,” Interfax news agency quoted Primakov as saying at a foreign policy conference.

He said it was “wrong” for the West to continue to treat Hamas as a terrorist organisation in light of the election, “wrong” to demand immediate formal recognition of Israel and “wrong to starve them financially” as the United States has said it intends to do. “Hamas should be involved in the ‘road map’ peace plan,” the blueprint for Israeli-

Primakov has held a number of posts at the top levels of the Russian government, including that of foreign minister, but the bulk of his career has focused on the Middle East, where he also served as Russia’s special envoy.

A senior US diplomat, David Welch, told a US congressional panel in Washington on Thursday that Washington’s strategy in light of Hamas’ election victory was to isolate the group financially and politically and to “make their function as a government enormously difficult”. afp

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