|
World Jewish News
HAMAS invited to Near East conference in Moscow; Israel ignores conference.
30.05.2009
Sergey Lavrov has invited HAMAS to take part in a conference on the problems of the Arab-Israeli conflict in Moscow.
Avigdor Liberman stated that Israel will refuse to take part in the Moscow conference if HAMAS or Hizbullah attend.
One of the high-ranked activists of the Palestinian terrorist organization HAMAS in Damask Ali Barake has stated once more that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia has, during negotiations with the head of the HAMAS politbureau Halid Mashal, invited the delegation of the "Islamic resistance movement" to take part in the conference on the problems of the Arab-Israeli conflict, which the Russian authorities are planning to hold in Moscow.
The head of the Russian MFA Sergey Lavrov said during his speech to the journalists that he is not exempting the possibility of HAMAS participation in the Near East conference in Moscow. He reminded that the "Islamic resistance movement" was elected in parliamentary elections in the PNA, and stated that HAMAS "represents the opinion of the majority of the Palestinian people."
The Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Liberman responded to this with a statement that Israel will refuse to participate in the Moscow conference if HAMAS and/or Hizbullah are represented, either directly or indirectly.
He reminded that these are organizations included in the lists of terrorist groups, and announced that Israel's representatives will not negotiate to terrorists. Liberman also reminded that the Russian authorities began talking about holding a conference in Moscow during the preparation of the Annapolis conference, because of their interest of defending the interests of their Arabic partners.
Despite the fact that it has been almost two years since the Annapolis conference, and Russia has many times attempted to name the date of the Moscow forum, neither the format, nor the date of the conference has been established as of yet. Israel has long refused to take part in the conference because of its pointlessness, has afterwards stated that they were, in principle, ready to take part in this forum.
|
|
