France Pulls A Carter (Updated)

Guess who else is talking to Hamas?

France has had informal contacts with Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that rules Gaza, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday.

Kouchner, speaking on Europe-1 radio, was confirming a report in the daily Le Figaro that quoted a retired diplomat as saying he met with Hamas leaders a month ago.

Apparently, France was treated to the same stock response that Carter was:

A former ambassador to Iraq, Yves Aubin de la Messuziere, told Le Figaro that he had met a month ago in Gaza with Mahmoud Zahar, the Hamas strongman, and Ismael Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister. Apparently, de la Messuziere was acting on behalf of the French government.

''They assured (me) that they were ready to accept a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, which amounts to an indirect recognition of Israel,'' the diplomat was quoted as saying.

''They said they were ready to stop suicide attacks and, what surprised me is that the Islamist leaders recognize the legitimacy of Mahmoud Abbas,'' the moderate Palestinian president and Fatah's leader, de la Messuziere said. Abbas' West Bank government is in a bitter rivalry with the Hamas regime in Gaza.

Hamas must get a real kick out of these visits.

UPDATED: Israel Matzav points out that Israel has been doing the same thing, and discussed the implications.

Come to think of it, can Obama now bring back Robert Malley?
Are all questions of Obama on the issue of dealing with Hamas now off the table?

Once Israel embraced the idea of a 2-state solution, that idea became acceptable.
What now happens to the idea of Hamas being a terrorist state?
Can the US remain justified in keeping it on its list of terrorist states?
Can the boycott of Hamas be maintained?

Bottom line--by talking with Hamas, has Israel opened the door to the recognition of Hamas as a government and welcomed it into the family of nations?

Technorati Tag: Hamas and France.