03/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - “We have to talk to Hamas,” said Martin Schulz on Tuesday 3 February, on the sidelines of the European Parliamentary session in Strasbourg. Schulz, the leader of the Socialist Group in the EP, repeated his view that the international community had missed an opportunity to offer the Palestinian movement, which features on the European list of terrorist organisations, the “chance to become a normal political party”. The opportunity came in January 2006, when Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections. “It was the will of a people” expressed in properly conducted elections, Schulz said. He went on to cite the example of the progress made in Lebanon when discussions were begun with Hezbollah following the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas is due to deliver a speech to the European Parliament on Wednesday 4 February. (M.B./transl.rt)

European Parliament Plenary Session