FORMER TAOISEACH John Bruton says it makes no sense to exclude Hamas from Middle East peace talks, arguing that previous efforts to settle other conflicts without including all protagonists was “something tried and did not work”.
Mr Bruton drew a contrast between US politicians who urged talks with Sinn Féin but who now hold the view that Hamas should not be invited into talks on a settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.
He did not directly say who he was referring to but that he had heard such arguments from US Congress members who themselves had photographs of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams hanging on their office walls.
Acknowledging Sinn Féin’s contribution to the peace process, he said that those who urged its involvement in the Northern Ireland political talks had been right to do so. “But they should apply that same logic to other situations where there is a big conflict.”
The former EU ambassador to the US was speaking yesterday in advance of a talk he gave to a meeting organised by Labour MEP Proinsias de Rossa on the lessons to be drawn in the Middle East from the Irish peace process.
Pointing to Hamas’s electoral mandate, he said setting preconditions for talks was counter-productive.
This was separate to a “tactical judgment” as to whether a party was sincere in its willingness to enter talks.