Hamas seeks direct talks with

GAZA, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Hamas movement on Sunday called on the United States for direct dialogue, while U.S. President Barack Obama pledged in a letter to the Palestinians that his administration is non-stop working on assisting the Middle East peace efforts.

The deposed Hamas government said in a statement emailed to Xinhua that it had recently sent a letter to the U.S. administration, calling for direct talks between the movement and the U.S. and ending the U.S. double standard policy in dealing with the Palestinian cause.

"The government (Hamas) had sent official letters to a senior U. S. delegation visiting the Gaza Strip, some political figures and professors, calling on the U.S. to start direct dialogue with Hamas," said the statement.

Lifting the U.S. veto on the inter-Palestinian reconciliation " would facilitate achieving it and ending the U.S. double standard in dealing with the Palestinian cause," the statement said, adding the Hamas government doesn't oppose the idea of establishing an independent Palestinian state.

"We reject the bribery offered by the U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell to the Palestinians for resuming the negotiati***, mainly easing the siege, lifting some roadblocks and releasing some prisoners in Israeli jails. These are existing rights that were confiscated by Israel," said the statement.

The Hamas government also warned of what it termed as " unofficial channels of negotiati***, which may surprise the Palestinian people with a new treaty similar to Oslo Agreement," adding "we h***e expressed our clear stance that we are against the direct and indirect peace negotiati***."

Meanwhile, the official Palestinian Wafa news agency reported on Sunday that U.S. President Barack Obama reiterated to the Palestinians that his administration would be working on assisting the Middle East peace efforts.

Wafa quoted a senior Palestinian source as saying that Obama's letter was a reply to a letter signed by 850,000 Palestinians that addressed to him several months ago on the Internet.

"I will work on achieving peace, security and prosperity in the region," said Obama in his letter which was handed to Abbas' aide Sabri Seidam, according to Wafa.

Seidam said in April that he had launched a campaign to collect 1 million signatures on the Internet to call on the U.S. administration to end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

According to Wafa, Obama pledged that the U.S. is committed to the two-state solution and it will work hard on creating a better future for the Palestinian people. He also called on Israel and the Palestinians to end their conflict and sign a peace agreement by the end of this year.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders met in Washington on Sept. 2, during the direct talks, the two sides discussed the permanent status issues, mainly settlement, borders, security, Jerusalem, refugees, water and prisoners.

After that, two rounds of talks, which were also sp***ored by the United States, h***e been held in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and Jerusalem respectively. The talks so far h***e not led to any progress due to the two sides' differences over the settlement issue in the West Bank.

 From: http://www.hxen.com/englishnews/world/2010-09-20/121951_2.html