Israel Cautions EU Against Concessions On Hamas

[Purveyor]

Mon Mar 12, 2007 7:54PM EDT

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Israel cautioned the European Union on Monday against going soft on a Palestinian government including the Islamist group Hamas, saying this could lead to "more terror."

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, on a visit to Canada, made the remarks to reporters three days after EU leaders welcomed an agreement in Mecca last month between Hamas and the moderate Fatah to form a unity government.

"If somebody thinks that Hamas, while not recognizing Israel, while using terror not in order to create a Palestinian state but to demolish the Jewish one ... can be partners to something, they are wrong," she said.

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The EU leaders said after a meeting in Brussels that they were ready to work with a Palestinian government that adopted a platform reflecting principles laid down by the Quartet of Middle East mediators -- the United States, Russia, the EU and the United Nations.

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"If the international community will not do it, I believe we'll see a kind of domino effect, in which some other states ... will try to achieve their own nuclear weapon," she said.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN1239373320070312