After holding informal talks with Hamas, France is now shunning the group, Nicolas Sarkozy said.
The French president told visiting Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni that Paris will have no more contact with Hamas, Israel Radio reported Monday.
The pledge came a week after French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner admitted that one of his former diplomats had met Hamas leaders to discuss options for reconciliation with rival Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Livni visited Paris Sunday to attend celebrations for Israel’s 60th Independence Day organized by the French Jewish community.
“This is all so exciting,” she told Israel Radio, adding that “half” the French Cabinet was attending the party.
Livni declined to discuss her closed-door talks with Sarkozy other than to say they were “important and
substantive.”
Like the rest of the European Union, France has demanded that Hamas renounce terrorism and recognize the Jewish state before it can be engaged by the West.
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