MOSCOW, February 10 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Foreign Ministry plans to invite the political leader of the Palestinian Authority's radical Hamas movement for talks in Moscow, a Russian diplomat said Friday. Alexander Kalugin, Russia's envoy to the Middle East peace process, said the possibility of talks with Haled Mashal were still under discussion.
According to the Russian daily Kommersant, Mashal, whose headquarters are in Damascus, is currently on a foreign tour and will return to Syria in mid February.
President Vladimir Putin made an unexpected move Thursday in announcing he was planning to invite the leaders of Hamas, the movement that won a landslide victory in Palestine's general elections in late January, to Moscow for talks in a bid to deter a fresh conflict in the region.
Hamas has claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist acts in Israel and refuses to recognize the Jewish state as a country. Its victory has endangered the peace process in the region and jeopardized western aid to the Palestinian Authority.
"Today, [we] must recognize that Hamas came to power via legitimate, democratic elections in the Palestinian National Authority, which is why we must respect the choice of the Palestinian people," Putin said at a news conference in Madrid, where he is on official business.
Kalugin said earlier that Moscow was seeking to convince Hamas to recognize Israel and observe existing agreements between Palestine and Israel and the roadmap settlement plan proposed by the UN, the United States, the European Union and Russia, the international mediators in the peace process.
The four states, known as the quartet, recognized the January 25 elections, but concluded that further financial aid for the Palestinian Authority's reforms would depend on the new government's policy.
Russian Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, currently in Italy for a Russia-NATO Council meeting, said Friday that many countries would be forced to maintain relations with Hamas eventually.
"Many leading countries - including the countries of the 'quartet' - will come into contact [with Hamas] sooner or later, some way or another," Ivanov said.
