MOSCOW, March 3 (RIA Novosti) - A senior member of the lower chamber of Russia's parliament said Friday that radical Palestinian movement Hamas had to change its ideology drastically given its new status in the Palestinian National Authority.
"We believe parliamentary and party contacts with Hamas are premature at this point," said Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the State Duma's international affairs committee. "Hamas is not a party so far, it is a movement, which has to make major changes to its political and ideological platforms to start contacts with other parties and parliaments."
A delegation of Hamas, which won parliamentary elections in Palestine in January and is expected to form a new government and set out its political program shortly, is visiting Moscow on the invitation of President Vladimir Putin, who has moved to end the impasse in the regional peace process complicated by the radical organization's election triumph.
Kosachev said although technically Russia did not recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization, its assessments of the movement's activities did not differ much from those given by its partners within the Quartet of international mediators in the Middle East process - the United States, Russia, the UN, and the EU - which insist Hamas must recognize Israel as a state, renounce violence, and fulfill the agreements struck by the PNA and Israel.
The common view in the West is that Hamas is a terrorist organization that has claimed responsibility for dozens of suicide bombings in Israel, although it has observed a ceasefire over a year already. Representatives of the movement have said it refuses to recognize Israel, saying peace talks can only resume after the Israelis withdraw from Palestinian lands occupied in 1967 and agree to the return of Palestinian refugees there. It also accuses Israel of pursing "an inhumane policy" toward Palestinians.
At the same time, Kosachev said Hamas was a democratically elected political force and it would be unwise to ignore it completely.
"The responsibility of Hamas for its actions and ideology is growing, and changing greatly," the MP said, adding that by inviting Hamas to Moscow Russia was acting on behalf of the Quartet rather than on its own.
He said Moscow did not expect the talks to yield any agreements or prompt Hamas to drop its radical policy immediately.
Kosachev said Hamas changing an approach to regional problems would take time. The organization could afford radical acts when it had not been responsible for the PNA's future and for the peace process, whereas today Hamas was at the helm of its country.
Abu Marzuk, deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, who is leading the delegation with bureau chief Khaled Meshaal, said Thursday the delegates felt optimistic about the upcoming meetings in Moscow.
Mazruk said Russia could "fill the vacuum caused by mistakes in the United States' Middle East policy" and accused the Americans of being guided exclusively by Israel's interests.
