After ruling out talks with the militant Islamic group Hamas, the Bush administration is using Egypt as an intermediary to open a channel between Israel and representatives of the group, in what some diplomats say could be a softening of the U.S. stance, the New York Times said Wednesday.
While administration officials still say they do not plan to deal directly with Hamas, the United States has given tacit support to an attempt by Egyptian officials to mediate a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, which controls Gaza, the report said.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice discussed the mediation attempt with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit in Cairo earlier this month, and with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel, the report said, adding that Egyptian officials are the go-betweens.
Israel wants the rocket attacks from Gaza into Israeli towns and cities to stop. After meeting with Rice in Jerusalem early this month, Olmert said Israel would have no need for retaliatory incursions into Gaza if militants there stopped firing rockets across the border, the report said.
However, the effort to mediate a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel is filled with potential pitfalls, the report said, citing Israeli, Egyptian and U.S. officials.
Both Israel and the United States consider Hamas a terrorist organization and loathe the idea of giving it the legitimacy of mediated talks, the report added.
Source:Xinhua
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