Britain should engage Mideast groups - Lawmakers urge contact with Hamas, Hezbollah, Muslim Brotherhood

Britain should begin talking directly with three of the Middle East’s most prominent radical Islamic groups, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood, a committee of lawmakers said in a report released Monday.

British diplomats should speak with moderate elements from such groups and continue engaging Iran and Syria because their influence in the region can no longer be discounted, Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee said.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is strong in Egypt, and Hamas and Hezbollah cannot be ignored,” the report said.

Ignored???? Hardly!!!

Britain’s priority should now be to draw Hamas back into a national unity government with the more moderate Fatah movement and persuade it to renounce violence, the committee said.

The lawmakers urged former Prime Minister Tony Blair, the new envoy for the “Quartet,” an international group of Middle East mediators, to negotiate directly with the militant group.

A similar approach was recommended for dealing with Lebanon’s Hezbollah group and the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s outlawed opposition party. Lawmakers described Hezbollah’s role in Lebanon as malign and said the scope of the Brotherhood’s Islamist agenda was uncertain, but the committee said the power and influence of the two made dealing with them unavoidable.

The recommendations run counter to existing policies.

NOOOOOOOO!!!

Britain’s Foreign Office said it had challenged Hamas to renounce violence before it would talk with the group. “There have to be some ground rules,” the office said in a statement.

Sure! They are just waiting to oblige!!

In another article, Europe calls for dialogue with Hamas, it was reported: Calls emerged in Italy and Britain Monday for the opening of a dialogue with the radical Islamist Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip and the Hezbollah in Lebanon.

And yet another article reports that the UK's boycott of Hamas criticised. Michael Gapes, chairman of the foreign affairs committee, a British parliamentary committee, said: "That means engaging with moderate elements within Hamas in order to try to facilitate political compromise and move Hamas towards the process set out by the Quartet including its principles of non-violence, recognition of Israel, and abiding by all previous agreements."

Here we go again, moderate elements!!! So just how will a dialogue take place?

And the New York Times reported that Hamas and Fatah disagree on whether they’re talking. A Hamas official in Gaza said Sunday that his organization was holding unofficial talks with representatives from the rival Fatah movement, as tension between the factions continued to simmer on the ground. Fatah officials denied that any such dialogue was taking place.

Well, I suppose if they can't talk to one another, they better talk to the Brits or Europeans then! Maybe they can even mediate between them ...