Hamas will not reach peace with Israel until the Jewish state withdraws from Palestinian territory it occupied in 1967, the radical movement's leader said on Friday after landmark first talks with a world power.
Khaled Meshaal said that only if Israel declared its readiness to pull out of occupied land, return refugees, break down the security fence and free all prisoners, "then our side will take serious steps toward securing peace."
He made it clear he was in no rush to enter any kind of talks with Israel, which considers the group a terrorist organization.
Meshaal's comments came after talks in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that marked the Hamas leader's most high-profile appearance yet on the international stage.
It follows the movement's stunning Palestinian election victory in January and as it prepares to form its first government despite being isolated on the international stage for refusing to recognize Israel's right to exist.
The visit was held under intense security -- at Meshaal's press conference, eight bodyguards wearing black trenchcoats stood directly behind him and his Hamas colleagues.
The delegation had earlier been given the rare protection of elite Kremlin secret service personnel, a measure usually only accorded top dignitaries.
Lavrov told Hamas it had to respect the views laid down by the Middle East quartet of mediators -- Russia, the US, the EU and the UN.
"That means, above all, the need to stick by all existing agreements, the need to recognize the right of Israel to exist as a partner in negotiations, [and] the need to reject all armed methods of settling political questions," Interfax quoted him as saying.
But Meshaal said Israel bore the blame for the Middle East impasse and had "always turned away from its responsibilities."
Asked about a truce Hamas has largely observed over the past year, he said Israel "has not stopped its aggression" and, "for that reason, we have not got a special interest or enthusiasm in that kind of ceasefire."
Nevertheless, in a statement after the talks, the Russian foreign ministry said Hamas vowed to stick to the ceasefire provided Israel also refrained from force.
"The willingness of Hamas not to withdraw from the inter-Palestinian agreement on a ceasefire reached in March 2005 was confirmed with the understanding that Israel would also refrain from use of force," it said.
Earlier, Meshaal had told Agence France Presse his group was ready to "move forward" in its relations with Israel.
"Hamas is fully ready to go forward as much as this is possible. Everything now depends on Israel's policies," he said.
The group is regarded as a terrorist group by the US and Europe, but not by Russia. As well as refusing to recognize Israel, Hamas has claimed responsibility for dozens of suicide bombings against Israeli targets.
The Hamas delegation includes five other top Hamas officials and deputies from Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank.
Putin caught the other members of the quartet by surprise when he invited Hamas leaders to Moscow.
Lavrov and other senior Russian officials have stressed the invitation was designed to underline to Hamas the need to align itself with the principles of the quartet trying to broker peace.
Israeli officials have described Putin's invitation as a "knife in the back," although the Europeans have signalled the talks could be useful in breaking the impasse.
The US initially reacted cooly to the Russian invitation but a State Department spokesman said on Friday the meeting in Moscow had "served the purpose" of emphasizing the "expectations of the international community."
"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," spokesman Adam Ereli said.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion