EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU's refusal to talk to Hamas is based on simplistic assumptions and is damaging the peace process, according to an expert on political Islam and a former adviser to the EU. "It's a huge mistake. I think one of the strategic mistakes for the European position in this area and a mistake which directly undermines European security both in this region and in Europe itself," Alastair Crooke, the head of the Beirut-based NGO, Conflicts Forum, told EUobserver. A pro-Hamas rally in the West Bank EU diplomats in the Palestinian territories still have "administrative level" contacts with the militant group on issues such as managing election monitoring missions or in special cases, such as trying to secure the release of kidnapped BBC correspondent Alan Johnston in 2007. But EU states in 2006 made a political decision to halt high-level discussions until Hamas renounces violence and accepts the right of Israel to exist. The group is also listed on the EU's register of terrorist entities, putting a legal block on financial assistance.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU's refusal to talk to Hamas is based on simplistic assumptions and is damaging the peace process, according to an expert on political Islam and a former adviser to the EU.
"It's a huge mistake. I think one of the strategic mistakes for the European position in this area and a mistake which directly undermines European security both in this region and in Europe itself," Alastair Crooke, the head of the Beirut-based NGO, Conflicts Forum, told EUobserver.
A pro-Hamas rally in the West Bank
EU diplomats in the Palestinian territories still have "administrative level" contacts with the militant group on issues such as managing election monitoring missions or in special cases, such as trying to secure the release of kidnapped BBC correspondent Alan Johnston in 2007.
But EU states in 2006 made a political decision to halt high-level discussions until Hamas renounces violence and accepts the right of Israel to exist. The group is also listed on the EU's register of terrorist entities, putting a legal block on financial assistance.
That it might be counter-productive, that it might be against the long term interests of the EU, Palestine and Israel is neither here nor there. We must all do what Likud say or they'll bomb Iran and start WWIII keep to the Fen Causeway
Big mistake, considering Hamas had just won an overwhelming mandate in an election. The brainless should not be in banking. — Willem Buiter
