Posted on 02/13/2006 8:27:42 AM PST by lizol
Israel plays up Hamas links to Chechen separatists
By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Outraged by Moscow's overtures to Hamas, Israel has told its diplomats to play up alleged ties between the Palestinian militants and Chechens fighting to break away from Russia, Israeli political sources said on Monday.
They said the Foreign Ministry supplied embassies in Russia and elsewhere with an information pamphlet linking the Hamas and Chechen causes after Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week he wanted to invite leaders of the Islamic group to visit.
Putin's move raised hackles in Israel and the United States by challenging their campaign to isolate Hamas, which won Palestinian legislative elections last month, until it renounces violence and recognizes the Jewish state's right to exist.
"The idea is to show the Russians and others that there is no difference between Hamas terrorism and Chechen terrorism," said a political source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Hamas denies having links to the Chechen separatists.
"It is widely known that Hamas does not intervene in the internal affairs of other sovereign countries," said group spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. "Attempts by Israel to isolate Hamas internationally, politically and economically have failed."
Russia has been fighting a Chechen insurgency since 1994 when it sent troops into the southern province to quell what later became an Islamist-led bid for independence. It says it is confronting mercenaries financed by "international terrorism."
The rebels say fighters from outside Russia are among them, but there has been no mention of Palestinian involvement.
The pamphlet circulated by Israel's Foreign Ministry was compiled by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, a think-tank staffed by former Israeli intelligence operatives.
"We would ask you to bring the contents of this report to the attention of opinion-shapers in the communities where you are based," said an attached memo addressed to diplomats, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.
The pamphlet cites posters celebrating Hamas and Chechen leaders as Islamic warriors, which it says were distributed by the Palestinian militant group at West Bank universities and an orphanage in 2004 and later seized by Israeli troops.
No military or financial cooperation is alleged.
Hamas suicide bombings helped spearhead a Palestinian revolt that erupted in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2000. Asked if his group supported the Chechen cause in principle, Abu Zuhri declined comment.
Putin has said that, unlike the United States and European Union, Russia does not consider Hamas a terrorist organization.
Ping
"play up" as if it weren't true?
So how KGB officers will spin this? They were just telling us there is no link..
Paging KGB..
Oh, we already koonw the rabid Putinista position on this. They say Hamas has no links to Al-Qaeda at all! Hamas aren't terrorists, no not at all.
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