Hamas: Ready to talk with US, Europe

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Hamas is ready for dialogue with the US and Europe, but rejects calls from the West to disarm, a spokesman said Wednesday.

Mohammed Ghazal, a Hamas representative in the West Bank, spoke a day after Britain's visiting foreign secretary, Jack Straw, ruled out contact with Hamas leaders until the group renounces violence. The United States also considers Hamas a terrorist organization and refuses to deal with it.

On Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom that Britain would have no contact with Hamas leaders, but left the impression that lower-level meetings with Hamas functionaries who have won elected office in Palestinian municipalities may be unavoidable.

Straw, who arrived in Jerusalem Tuesday for two days of meetings in Israel and the Palestinian Authority prior to Britain's assumption of the rotating presidency of the EU next month, told Shalom that London deemed Hamas a terror organization with whom meetings would be proscribed until the organization abandoned violence and recognized Israel's right to exist.

JPost

[Colorado Blue]

1. EU also considers Hamas a terror organization.

I think, their brains and political skills are needed more now than their weapons.

Lay 'em down, guys. Building a state is a huge challenge, we need you.