Russia downgrades ties with Hamas
Putin tells Abbas: You are the legitimate leader of all Palestinians
Russia has downgraded its ties with Palestinian group Hamas and plans no high-level contacts with it in the near future, First Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Denisov said on Tuesday.
"Recently, we have somewhat downgraded the level of contacts with Hamas. Now we are pursuing a pragmatic goal of trying to influence them directly and indirectly to resume national unity," Denisov told reporters after a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas.
President Vladimir Putin told Abbas at the Tuesday meeting that he is the legitimate leader of all Palestinians, as the Palestinian president continued his visit to Russia seeking support for his government in his standoff with Hamas.
Abbas, meanwhile, again accused his Hamas rivals, who took over the Gaza Strip last month, of committing crimes and called for the radical Islamic group's leadership to take responsibility.
The visit is Abbas' first to Russia since the Hamas takeover - which prompted a flurry of diplomatic activity, with the international community lining up behind Abbas and the West Bank-based government of moderates he has installed.
Russia, which is a member of the Quartet of Mideast negotiators, has hosted Hamas' top leaders for talks in the past year and there was speculation that Abbas' visit to Moscow was an attempt to garner more support for his Fatah movement and his government.
Putin repeated assurances of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a day earlier that Moscow viewed Abbas as the lawful leader of the Palestinians.
Monday, Lavrov had told Abbas Russia "firmly supports you as the lawful leader of all Palestinians and support all your efforts directed at... the achievement of unity among Palestinians."
The foreign minister also called for dialogue between Fatah and Hamas, and "stressed the need to restore Palestinian unity through dialogue between all political forces," the ministry reported in a statement.
"I want to assure you that Russia will support you as the legitimate leader of the Palestinian people. I am convinced that you will do everything to restore the unity of the Palestinian people," Putin told Abbas, Tuesday.
'Hamas must take responsibility'
"We have repeatedly come out in favor of the legal defense of the Palestinian people, down to the creation of a Palestinian state," Putin added."We have had very painful, difficult events recently in the Gaza Strip, but we won't spare any effort to overcome the consequences of what has happened in order to the return to the situation that we had previously and so we can continue our path," Abbas told Putin.
"Despite the takeover in Gaza, we feel responsibility for our people and we call on friendly nations to provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people so that the social-economic situation there does not worsen," the Palestinian president said.
At a news conference later, Abbas called on Hamas to "take responsibility and apologize for the crimes that it committed against its people."
On the question of legislative elections, which are designed to freeze the Hamas militant group from power, Abbas said that they should be held "as soon as possible," but said no date had yet been decided.
'PA can't interfere in Russian policies'
Last year, Moscow attracted the ire of Israel and Western nations by hosting Hamas' top leadership for talks. Many observers have said the Hamas talks in Russia were part of an effort by Moscow to regain influence it enjoyed in the Middle East during the Soviet era.
Abbas, who met with Putin in Jordan in February, made his previous trip to Moscow in May 2006.
In an interview with the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta published Tuesday, Abbas said Russia had to make its own decision about whether to maintain contacts with Hamas. "This is an affair for Russia as a sovereign state and does not create any problems for our bilateral relations," he was quoted as saying.
"We will present to Russia our point of view on the situation. This will be one of the main topics of the talks with the Russian leadership. Along with this, we cannot interfere in their policies and their initiatives," he said.
Abbas repeated his argument that Hamas' Gaza takeover was a coup d'etat. "We can talk about the reestablishment of dialogue and settlement of relations only after Hamas abandons this coup and its results," he said.
Abbas said last week that he hopes to reach a full peace deal with Israel in less than a year.
AFP and Reuters contributed to this report
