Mesh’al: Hamas “in contact� with EU and U.S.

12/14/2004 4:00:00 PM GMT

Khaled Mesh’al, Hamas’ political leader, said on Tuesday that the movement is having contacts with the United States and the European Union.

Mesh’al said in an interview with the BBC's Newsnight program that the "The European Union, which puts Hamas on a list of terrorist organizations, is still continuing communications and meetings,"

He added that Europe "recognize[s] Hamas' authority and that there can be no understanding or stability in Palestine without talks with Hamas,"

Mesh’al also said that the U.S. had contacted the group in recent months.

“The American authorities, who have also put us on a list of terrorist organizations and criticize us, have also contacted us in recent months." He said.

Mesh’al added that "The Arab countries are continuing meetings with Hamas despite pressure from the American administration,"

On other hand, Cristina Gallach, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, denied Meshal’s statements and said that there were no contacts between the EU and Hamas.

The U.S. State Department didn’t immediately comment on the news.

Last month, Javier Solana, was quoted by the BBC as saying that he had direct contacts with Hamas.

"I have had contacts with Hamas but not in the last few days," Solana said in the original interview. He added that "these meetings were not long."

Hours later, Solana’s office said that his statements were misinterpreted.

“Old ideas”

Meshal also tried to explain why Hamas decided to boycott the upcoming Palestinian presidential elections, scheduled for 9 January.

"The problem with the elections is that they are based on old ideas. Even with a Hamas president that would not change. So this is not a serious move forward," he said.

He said that the Fatah faction of the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was applying "dictatorial methods" to influence the outcomes of the elections.

"This is not real democracy... That is why we have boycotted the elections despite our belief in democracy, and our insistence that there should be free and democratic general elections," Meshal said.

He also said that he believed "100 percent" that the Arafat was poisoned.

"There is a lot of evidence that Yasser Arafat was poisoned, his health deteriorated suddenly without a reason, the symptoms which Yasser Arafat suffered were similar to poisoning,"

Arafat died of an unknown disease in a French military hospital on Nov. 11.