Hamas video toespraak aan Britse kamerleden mislukt door technische storing

Waarom moet Hamas het Britse parlement toespreken? Ik geloof dat Achmadinejad dat eerder al heeft gedaan. Wie volgt, Osama Bin Laden? Misschien hebben de Somalische piraten ook wel een interessante boodschap voor het Britse parlement. Of de Janjaweed. Zij hebben allen ongetwijfeld zeer begrijpelijke redenen voor hun agressie, en wie weet, als we hun tegemoet komen en hun grieven serieus nemen, dat ze dan wel bereid zijn ermee op te houden. Een en ander uiteraard wel onder hun voorwaarden...

 

RP

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Last update - 22:30 22/04/2009       
Hamas video address to British MPs fails due to technical glitch
By Barak Ravid
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1079811.html

 

 

Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshal's plan to address British lawmakers in an unprecedented video teleconference on Wednesday failed due to a technical glitch.

 

The Damascus-based Meshal had hoped to address the parliamentarians as part of the Islamist group's campaign to persuade the West to engage in dialogue with Hamas as part of the Middle East peace process.

 

Event organizers had hoped the session could help persuade the U.S. and European governments to review their policy toward Hamas, but were unable to speak to Meshal when a video link failed.

 

Independent British lawmaker Clare Short, a former Labor Cabinet minister and one of the event's organizers, said she would invite Meshal to address a future meeting in the same way.

 

About 25 members of the British House of Commons and House of Lords had gathered for the session, which was criticized by Britain's Foreign Office and Israel's Foreign Ministry.

 

The event was arranged by MP Clare Short, who reigned from the Labor Party in 2006, several years after quitting the government over the war in Iraq. Short recently led a delegation of British MPs to meet with Meshal in Damascus.

 

Short extended personal invitations about a week ago to dozens of MPs to attend the videoconference, to be broadcast to a meeting room in the MPs' office building. A large number of MPs are expected to attend.

 

The Israeli Embassy in London tried unsuccessfully to get pro-Israel MPs to exert pressure to cancel the event.

 

Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor said Monday: "If Khaled Meshal would ask to enter the U.K., he would be denied, because the British government knows very well that Hamas is a terror organization. It is therefore a very serious matter when the British Parliament gets around this obstacle and opens its doors to a terror leader by means of a videoconference."

 

In recent months, particularly after Operation Cast Lead, several MPs have met with Meshal in Damascus and with Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza.

 

The British government does not meet officially with Hamas, as it is on the European Union's list of terror groups.

 

U.K.-Israeli relations have been overshadowed recently by closer relations by British politicians and Hamas.