Lieberman withholds condemnation of Russia FM's meet with Hamas

A week before Avigdor Lieberman's first diplomatic visit to Moscow as Israel's foreign minister, a controversy has erupted over a meeting which Lieberman's Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, held Saturday evening in Damascus with Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshal.

Lieberman shelved a statement condemning the meeting which the Israeli Foreign Ministry had drafted, in deference to the Russians, but then relented and released a weaker response expressing "deep disappointment" that the meeting took place.

The Russian foreign minister arrived in the Syrian capital on Saturday to participate in a meeting of foreign ministers sponsored by the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The meeting with Meshal came following a cooling of relations between Hamas and Russia, including Russian support of Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.

The Israeli foreign ministry was miffed over the Lavrov-Meshal meeting, especially when it was followed by a statement by Lavrov indicating that Russia would continue its contacts with Hamas despite international criticism.

Sunday morning, after discussions at the foreign ministry, the foreign ministry decided to release a statement of condemnation. Because of the sensitivity of the matter with Lieberman's scheduled June 1 visit to the Russian capital, the statement was sent to Lieberman for his personal approval.

After shelving the statement, Lieberman's office noted that this was "not the Russian foreign minister's first get-together with Meshal and it was nothing to get all excited about."

After the Prime Minister's Office subsequently condemned the meeting in Damascus, Lieberman pulled an about-face and issued a new response. "The Foreign Minister," the new statement read, "expresses deep disappointment over the meeting and believes that any meeting with Hamas makes a peace agreement more remote and legitimizes terrorism."

Senior foreign ministry officials expressed amazement at the indecisive response by Lieberman to Lavrov's meeting with Meshal.

"If the British or French foreign minister [had met Meshal], we would have already recalled our ambassador," one of the officials said.