Hamas wants talks with Americans, Europeans

(GAZA CITY) - Hamas is ready for dialogue with the international community, including the United States and European Union, the leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Ismail Haniya told AFP.

"Hamas is ready to dialogue with the world, international community, the US, the (Middle East) Quartet and the Europeans," Haniya said Wednesday.

The Islamist movement, which has been in power in the Gaza Strip since June 2007 after a week of vicious street battles with Fatah loyalists, remains a pariah of the international community.

It is considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union refuses to hold formal talks with the group.

One of the main obstacles to opening a dialogue is the Islamists' refusal to recognise Israel's right to exist, a position inscribed in Hamas's founding charter. The international community demands an explicit recognition.

"They have to recognise us first, the right of the Palestinian people, we are the victims," said the 48-year-old, who merely repeated that Hamas supports "the establishment of a Palestinian state with the 1967 borders."

The Palestinians want their future state based on borders before the Arab-Israeli war of June 1967, with its capital in east Jerusalem, which is predominantly Arab and was annexed by Israel in the conflict.

The Hamas prime minister said his movement had come "closer in political terms" to conditions issued by the Quartet -- the US, EU, Russia and the United Nations -- to open dialogue, including a "long-term ceasefire."

Hamas has stopped rocket attacks against the Jewish state since the end of Israel's devastating offensive against the Palestinian enclave a year ago.

Haniya said he was determined to "establish Palestinian reconciliation and to have fair elections... in all Palestinian homes, including Jerusalem."

Regarding "reconciliation, it is moving. It needs a strong push to reach a signature" with Fatah, the rival movement headed by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

A senior Fatah official, Nabil Shaath, made a rare visit to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Wednesday in a bid to encourage stalled reconciliation efforts.

Shaath, a member of the central committee of the secular Fatah, met with Khalil al-Hayya, a senior official from Hamas.

"We are one people, we have one homeland. Every Palestinian has the right to move in his own land at any time," Haniya said. "If he (Shaath) asks for a meeting, we will do nothing to prevent it."

After talks mediated by Egypt, Hamas has refused to sign a unity deal that was proposed by Cairo in October unless it is amended to reflect what the group says were previous understandings reached with Fatah.

Both Egypt and Fatah have said the deal is final.

In addition, relations between Hamas and Egypt have deteriorated recently after an armed confrontation at the Rafah border crossing that killed one Egyptian and wounded several Palestinians.

"What happened in Rafah did not affect the strategic relationships between Egypt and Hamas," said Haniya, adding the "Egyptian role should continue and we welcome all Arab efforts for reconciliation, and Egypt has to be there."

"It is no secret that the US and Israel do not want reconciliation but we are committed to reach it."