By Prensa Latina,
Paris : France admitted on Monday that it has contacts with the Palestine Hamas movement, but stressed that those talks are only aimed at finding solutions to the conflict beteeen Israel and the Gaza Strip.
In a statement to Le Figaro daily, French Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Kouchner said that his country resumed conversations with Hamas.
“We have to talk if we want to play a role in the Middle East,” noted Kouchner.
The European Union and the US put as a condition to any negotiation with Hamas the recognition of Israel as a state and the end of violence.
“We seek a way that allows our envoys to go to Gaza,” emphasized the French minister when talking about the issue in an interview with Europe1 radio station.
According to Le Figaro, French diplomat Yves Aubin met with the main leaders of the Palestine Islamic movement, including Ismael Haniye y Mahmud Zahar, in Gaza last month.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy will make an official visit to Israel in June, the first one in 12 years of a head of government of this country.