Israel interested in relations with Russia despite odds over Hamas
Israel is interested in maintaining and developing good relations with Russia despite its dissatisfaction over Russian contacts with the Palestinian Hamas movement, the Israeli foreign minister told a local TV channel on Monday.
Last week, the Israeli Foreign Ministry published a statement in which it expressed "deep disappointment" over the meeting of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and senior Hamas member Khaled Mashaal in Syria and called on Moscow "not to divide terrorists into `good ones` and `bad ones` using geography."
"We have had normal diplomatic relations with Russia for more than twenty years and we plan to develop them in the future. Of course, each country has its own interests, there are misunderstandings," Avigdor Lieberman said.
"I can`t say I am happy with... the contacts with Hamas, however we are not going to break off diplomatic relations or look for reasons to make them worse," he added.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has denied criticism from Israel over meetings with Hamas representatives and said the Middle East problem could be only normalized "based on the unity of all Palestinians, and not the isolation of individual groups."
Apart from contacts with Hamas, Tel Aviv expressed its disapproval over supplies of Russian arms to Syria which were announced the last week. On Sunday, Lieberman told a local radio station that the proposed export of MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters and short-range defense systems to Syria would not contribute to "creating a peaceful atmosphere" in the Middle East.