Russian officials urged the Palestinian group Hamas on Friday to renounce violence, recognize Israel's right to exist and observe previous deals with the Jewish state in high-profile talks with the group's leaders in Moscow.
Russia conveyed to Hamas the position of the Middle East mediating quartet in the talks, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists after his meeting with the Hamas delegation, which arrived in Moscow early Friday for a three-day visit.
"That deals primarily with the need to adhere to all existing agreements, the need to recognize Israel as a state and a partner in the negotiations, the need to give up military means to settle political issues," Lavrov said, quoted by Russian news agencies.
Russia is a member of the quartet, which also includes the United Nations, the United States and the European Union.
Hamas swept the January Palestinian parliamentary elections and is in the process of forming a government. The group, sworn to Israel's destruction, has been under mounting pressure to renounce violence, recognize Israel and accept previous agreements with the Jewish state including the internationally-backed roadmap peace plan.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal, who leads the Hamas delegation to Moscow, "confirmed Hamas' readiness not to withdraw from the inter-Palestinian cease-fire agreement concluded in March 2005 on the understanding that Israel also refrains from the use of force."
But the Hamas leader also set out conditions for long-term peace with Israel. Mashaal told a press conference that the movement "will take steps toward peace" if Israel formally declares its readiness to return to the borders before the 1967 Mideast War, allow Palestinian refugees to return, pull down the dividing wall and release all arrested Palestinians.
(Xinhua News Agency March 4, 2006)
