[AP/Washington Post] Ben Hubbard - After meeting former President Jimmy Carter in Gaza on Tuesday, Ahmed Youssef, the deputy Hamas foreign minister, said Wednesday that "Recognizing Israel is completely unacceptable." Youssef said the other two international conditions - renouncing violence and accepting past agreements between Israel and the Palestinians - are irrelevant. According to Hamas ideology, there is no room for a Jewish state in an Islamic Middle East. The militant group has sent dozens of suicide bombers into Israel, killing hundreds. Carter's meeting was itself unusual since the U.S., EU and Israel consider Hamas a terror group and refuse to deal with it directly.
2009-06-18 06:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive