Hamas leader Khalid Mish'al and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov concluded talks in Moscow on February 27 without any apparent modification in the Palestinian group's hard-line attitude toward Israel, Russian and international media reported.

Lavrov said he supports lifting an international aid embargo against the Palestinian Authority, which is Russia's long-standing position. But Mish'al said Hamas is not prepared to recognize Israel -- a condition of Israel, the United States, and the EU for lifting the embargo. The Quartet for Middle East peace (Russia, the United States, the EU, and the UN) says the Palestinian government must also renounce violence and adhere to previous peace agreements. Mish'al nonetheless gave Lavrov assurances that his fighters will halt missile attacks and other acts of violence against Israel. Lavrov said that "Israel must refrain from the use of force on the Palestinians' territory and...Hamas must use all the authority it has...to stop the firing of...missiles at Israel.

We have received confirmation [from Hamas] that such steps will be taken." In Jerusalem on February 27, a spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert criticized Lavrov's position on lifting sanctions as being neither "the international community's stand nor the Quartet's stand." Russia believes that the international community should negotiate with Hamas because it won the January 2006 elections and hence is a legitimate political force in the region.

A Hamas delegation visited Moscow in March of that year but did not show signs of willingness to revise that group's hard-line stance toward Israel (see "RFE/RL Newsline," March 6, 8, and 15, and April 19, 2006, and January 31, 2007). PM