"Walker's World: Hamas breaks out
By MARTIN WALKER
UPI Editor
WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Israeli and U.S. hopes of isolating the new Hamas leaders in Palestine are fading fast, as the radical Islamist organization mounts an increasingly successful diplomatic offensive to turn their election victory into international respectability.
Although still denounced by Israel and the Bush administration and the European Union as a terrorist group, Hamas has swiftly broken out of the diplomatic cordon that was supposed to persuade it publicly to renounce terror and recognize the state of Israel.
Hamas leaders have now secured invitations to Russia, Turkey and Jordan, three countries that had been expected to maintain the diplomatic solidarity behind the internationally-agreed 'road map' to a peace agreement. Russia was the first and most decisive breach in the wall, as one of 'the Quartet,' the four guarantors of the road map along with the United States, the EU and the United Nations."
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