Jerusalem, March 24 (Xinhua) Visiting US Vice President Dick Cheney Monday said Hamas with support from Syria and Iran, is trying to torpedo the peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel, the daily Ha’aretz reported on its website.
“It is clearly a difficult situation, in part, because I think it’s true, there’s evidence that Hamas is supported by Iran and Syria and they’re doing everything they can to torpedo the peace process,” Cheney told reporters.
He said this after a breakfast meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Cheney is visiting Israel and the Palestinian territories in an effort to boost the Middle East peace process that was re-launched at a US-hosted peace conference in November.
On Sunday, Cheney met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah and told him that Israel and the Palestinians were required to make “painful concessions” in order to reach a peace agreement.
After meeting Israeli President Shimon Peres, Cheney said his country would do everything it could to deal with the alleged Iranian nuclear threat to Israel.
Since December, the Palestinian and Israeli negotiators have held several rounds of peace talks, but with no significant result.
Hamas, which is listed as a terrorist organisation by Israel and the US and has been ruling the Gaza Strip since last June, has called the ongoing peace talks useless.