Russia aims to help lift Palestinian aid blockade

Russia will work for international support of the Palestinian Authority power-sharing arrangement and for the lifting of the crippling international aid blockade, the foreign minister said today.

Russia favours the agreement between Hamas and the Fatah group to share power because it shows “wisdom, reason and responsibility before the Palestinian people,” Sergey Lavrov said at the start of his talks with Hamas’ supreme leader Khaled Mashaal.

“We are pushing for all members of the international community to support this process and make it irreversible, including efforts to lift the blockade,” Mr Lavrov added.

Millions of pounds in crucial foreign aid were cut off after Hamas, which the European Union, United States and others consider a terrorist group, gained control of the Cabinet and the legislature in January 2006 elections.

The so-called Quartet of Mideast peace brokers – which includes Russia, the EU, the United Nations and the United States – has demanded that any new Palestinian government recognise Israel’s right to exist, which Hamas has failed to do.

However, since the power-sharing deal worked out this month in Saudi Arabia, there has appeared to be a softening in the stance of some EU countries toward Hamas.

French President Jacques Chirac has said he would ask the EU at a summit in March to support plans for a unity government.

But a spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert criticised Mr Lavrov’s remarks. “This is not the international community’s stand and it’s not the Quartet’s stand,” Miri Eisin said.

Mr Mashaal’s Moscow visit reflected the Kremlin’s position that negotiations - rather than sanctions – are the best way to deal with Hamas.

Russia, which has been clamouring for a greater role in the Middle East, has been more positive about the unity government plan than Washington and the European Union.

Mr Mashaal was part of the Hamas delegation that visited Moscow in March 2006. The trip irked Israel, which has sought to keep the militant Islamic group isolated.