The United States wants to isolate Hamas financially and politically to make it ‘enormously difficult’ for the radical Palestinian group to govern, the US envoy for the Middle East said.
David Welch, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, told US lawmakers Washington is trying to dissuade governments from meeting with leaders of Hamas, which won January Palestinian elections and is considered a ‘terrorist’ group by the United States and European Union.
‘We urge them against contact because in our view, isolation and pressure have to be the words of the moment,’ Welch said.
The US strategy is to ‘make their function as a government enormously difficult,’ Welch said.
‘If nevertheless they were to have such contacts ... we bring to their attention the Quartet statement,’ he said.
The Quartet for Middle East peace -- the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia -- has urged Hamas to abandon violence, recognize Israel and embrace the diplomatic ‘roadmap’ to peace.
That blueprint to peace envisions an independent Palestinian nation existing side by side with the Jewish state.
Welch also said the United States received Wednesday about 30 million dollars of the 50 million dollars in direct aid that it had asked the Palestinian Authority to return, fearing that it would fall into the hands of Hamas.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice failed during a Middle East trip last month to mobilize Arab states to isolate Hamas.
Saudi Arabia said it would continue its financial help to the Palestinian Authority, while Egypt said Hamas should be given time.