Russia told Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal on Tuesday it would try to influence Western powers into lifting an aid embargo on the Palestinian administration but urged the movement to recognise Israel. Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations make up the Quartet of Middle East mediators.
Western powers cut off direct aid to the Palestinian Authority after Hamas came to power in a January 2006 election. Moscow shares the demands of other Quartet members that Hamas must recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals. But it has been critical of direct punitive measures such as the embargo.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at the start of talks with Meshaal that Russia fully supported a deal struck between Hamas and the rival Fatah faction in Mecca this month to form a unity government as a key peace initiative in the region.
"We think the participants in Mecca showed wisdom, prudence and responsibility," he said. "We strive for the international community to support this process and make it irreversible, including efforts to help lift the blockade."
Lavrov did not spell out what Russia intended to do to persuade Western nations, but at a news conference later he said: "Our advice to Hamas ... is to continue moving towards the principles of the Quartet that includes recognising Israel." Israel has said it would shun the new Palestinian government until it meets the Quartet's conditions.
Moscow, a permanent veto-wielding UN Security Council member, has positioned itself as a bridge between Hamas and Western powers because it is the only Quartet member to maintain ties with Hamas since the movement took power. Meshaal praised Russia's support and said his government sought to show flexibility in dealings with all sides.
"The Russian side understands very well and hears the desires of the Palestinian people. It shows respect for the Mecca agreement," Meshaal told a news conference in remarks translated into Russian. Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman, also in Moscow on a visit, rejected any possibility of lifting the embargo or recognising the planned new Palestinian government at this stage.
"Any recognition of this new government is simply encouraging terror, from our point of view, it is encouraging extremists, a weakness on behalf of the free world," he told reporters in Moscow. "I hope that neither the blockade is lifted nor the new government receives recognition of the Quartet."
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