Hamas requests direct talks with Obama

(PRESS TV) Hamas calls on Obama to hold direct talks with the movement. Hamas calls on U.S. President Barack Obama to hold direct talks with the movement, describing respect for democracy as essential for the Middle East peace process. Mousa Abu Marzouk, the deputy chief of the Hamas political bureau, said on Monday that the Obama administration should respect that there will be no solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without Hamas. Referring to Fatah movement led by the pro-Western Palestinian echelon Mahmoud Abbas, Marzouk said, "Dealing with Hamas is vital because he (Obama) cannot deal with people who don't represent the Palestinian people." Hamas rose to prominence in June 2007 when the Palestinians elected the group as their government in democratic elections. The movement was later sidelined by Mahmoud Abbas and has since been excluded from the US-mediated peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel. Hamas says the exclusion of a legal government that has been elected by a majority of votes from such a process does not create the positive atmosphere necessary for achieving success. In a reference to the recent Obama speech in Cairo, Marzouk said, "The real violence in the region is (the Israeli) occupation. It's also unacceptable that Obama talked about violence and didn't talk about occupation." Last Thursday, Obama addressed the Muslim world in Cairo without touching on the ongoing Israeli oppression imposed on the Palestinian nation and the three-week war on Gaza. Hamas nevertheless responded positively by praising Obama for taking a positive stance against the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem). Obama has called on followers of the Zionist movement to halt all forms of settlement construction on Palestinian lands and to agree to the two-state solution. Hamas, whose main objective is Palestinian statehood, has been branded by the pro-Israeli European Union and the United States as a terrorist group and is under a boycott for its refusal to recognize Israel.