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Israel may one day talk to Hamas: president

Posted on: Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 12:38 CST

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's President Moshe Katsav said on Tuesday that talks with Hamas might one day be possible if the Palestinian Islamic group disarmed and abandoned its commitment to destroying the Jewish state.

Even if there was no chance that Hamas would meet such conditions any time soon, the comments from Israel's ceremonial president appeared to be a sign of shifting attitudes ahead of Palestinian elections.

"If Hamas recognizes Israel's right to exist, and ceases terrorism and is elected by the Palestinians to their parliament, under these conditions I think it would be possible to conduct political negotiations with them," Katsav said on Israel's Army Radio.

A senior Israeli official said that there had been no change in position and that Israel had long believed that Hamas could be a partner if it met the conditions set out by Katsav.

A Hamas spokesman said there was no question of disarming and that it was "committed to resistance against the occupation."

Hamas, popular among many Palestinians for its charities, perceived lack of corruption, and suicide bombings, is expected to make a strong showing against the mainstream Fatah in Palestinian parliamentary elections on January 25.

That has raised a big question over the possibility for any future peacemaking given that Hamas is officially dedicated to destroying Israel. President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah wants a state alongside Israel in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Hamas did not stand in 1996 elections because it opposed interim peace accords with Israel.

Israel's interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Tuesday that he hoped to renew peace talks with the Palestinians after Israeli elections on March 28, but only if militant groups are disarmed first.

Hamas, behind dozens of suicide bombings since a Palestinian uprising began in 2000, has consistently refused to disarm. But it has respected an 11-month-old truce to a greater extent than other Palestinian militant factions.

Some Hamas figures have suggested that talks with Israel might one day be possible if there was a complete withdrawal from all of the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem -- which Israel has said it will never do.

But senior Hamas leaders have rejected the idea of any talks and said that there is no discussion of changing the group's stand.

Under Western pressure to ensure that the Palestinian election takes place as planned, Israel has agreed to allow Palestinian voting in Arab East Jerusalem, but barred Hamas from listing candidates on ballot slips.

Source: REUTERS

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