[Guardian-UK] Ian Black - Hamas cannot be part of any Middle East peace talks until it renounces violence, Tony Blair told the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Monday. Blair, marking nearly two years since being appointed Middle East envoy for the Quartet, said: "The essential thing is to make the shift from saying 'we reserve the right to use violence' to a position that says 'we will have peaceful resistance only and be part of political negotiations.' It's better that Hamas be part of this process, but they've got to be prepared to agree to that. I hope they do because this issue would be a lot easier to deal with if everyone was around the table." "If they want to become part of this they have to stop being ambiguous," he said. "If they give a 'yes, but' answer it's not really any good. If there was a definite change of mind to embrace peaceful resistance, to go the Gandhi route, it would totally change the dynamics of this situation overnight."
2009-06-02 06:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive