Britain's and the international community's refusal to hold contacts with the Palestinian movement of Hamas is doing more harm than good, a British parliamentary committee said on Monday. Pursuing a "West Bank first" policy - where Britain and others deal with the West Bank, which is run by Fatah, and isolate the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip - will further jeopardise peace, the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said in a report on the Middle East.
"The government should urgently consider ways of engaging politically with moderate elements within Hamas," the all-party group of lawmakers said, according to Reuters.
It added former prime minister Tony Blair should personally engage with Hamas to help reconciliation in his new role as envoy for the Quartet of Middle East mediators. The committee also attacked Britain's response to last year's war between Israel and Lebanon's Hizbullah movement. It said Blair's refusal as prime minister to call for an immediate ceasefire had done "significant damage to the UK's reputation."
The parliamentary report also recommended that Britain press Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas into negotiations with Hamas to re-establish a national unity government. According to the committee, Britain had erred in enforcing the embargo against Hamas even after it agreed in February to form a unity government with Fatah.
© 2007 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
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