Putin tries to restore Russia’s role in Middle East
By Richard Balmforth
MOSCOW: By inviting Hamas for talks, Vladimir Putin has taken a bold but risky plunge into the Middle East peace process that he hopes will restore Russia’s role as a player on the world stage, experts say.
And, though his offer on Thursday caught the United States, Israel and other western powers on the hop, Putin has left himself with room for manoeuvre to ensure his ties with his powerful western partners are not hurt, they say.
Putin’s remarks in Madrid set diplomatic channels humming between Moscow and other world capitals on Friday as Russia emerged from the shadow of the United States and European Union, the key peace brokers in the Middle East.
“These statements amount to a take-over of the Middle East peace initiative,” Alexei Malashenko of the Moscow Carnegie Centre said.
“In a situation in which all the other peace mediators have proved to be paralyzed, we have in Russia a chance of giving the negotiating process a second wind,” said pro-Kremlin analyst Sergei Markov.
Other analysts said Putin’s reference to links with Hamas itself came as a surprise since the two sides had not been known to have contacts.
Hamas, considered a ‘terrorist’ organization by Washington, won a crushing victory over the long-dominant Fatah group in a Palestinian election on January 25. The group, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, has spearheaded suicide attacks against the Jewish state over the past five years.
Russia is a member of the Quartet, that also groups the United States, the European Union and the United Nations. But Moscow has always been a marginal player.
Russia agrees with the Quartet line that Hamas has to accept the right of Israel to exist. Putin reaffirmed that point, and Russian officials were quick to echo him on Friday.
“Everyone is telling Hamas that they must embark on a measured course because they won’t get far with such radical policies. We shall urge a change in Hamas policies at the meeting with their representative,” Interfax news agency quoted Russian Middle East envoy Alexander Kalugin as saying.
But one western diplomat said all the same “(Putin) is stretching the Quartet agenda considerably”.
“He has gone out fairly well ahead by inviting the Hamas leadership for talks without agreement first about principles that have to be complied with,” said the diplomat who monitors Russia’s Middle East policy.
As Israel expressed surprise and Washington said it was seeking details of Moscow’s intentions, a senior Hamas official said in Gaza that the group’s leaders ‘would be delighted’ to take up an invitation from Putin.
But the diplomat said Putin could still step back from his overtures to Hamas if it does not relent in its policy towards Israel once in power in the Palestine Authority.
Though Putin pulled a political rabbit out of the hat, commentators point out that US and European Union aid to the Palestinian Authority dwarfs anything that Moscow can provide — underscoring the little real leverage Russia has in the region.
The apparent boldness of what may in the end be a low-cost move for Putin appeared more to reflect his desire to boost his and Russia’s image in a high-profile year that includes holding the presidency of the G8 group of rich nations.
“Reasserting Russia as a big player on the world stage is very much Putin’s agenda. He may be trying to rebuild that at relatively low cost,” the diplomat said.
However briefly, the surprise move evoked memories of Soviet times when Moscow used its role as the main sponsor of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement in its Cold War confrontation with the United States.
After the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and especially after Arafat established his own ties with the West, Moscow’s role in the Middle East peace process was reduced to only token presence.—Reuters
