ANALYSIS-Hamas shows Carter its pragmatic face

By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent

BEIRUT, April 23 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter extracted a whiff of pragmatism but no policy shift from Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal in talks that irritated U.S., Israeli and Palestinian leaders bent on isolating the Islamist group.

After meeting Meshaal in Damascus at the weekend, Carter brandished his conditional agreement to a two state-solution as proof that Hamas would "accept Israel's right to live in peace".

Meshaal himself later made clear Hamas would not formally recognise Israel, but would accept a Palestinian state in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with Jerusalem as its capital, full sovereignty and the right of refugees to return.

No such peace deal is even remotely on the horizon -- Israel rejects each of these widely shared Palestinian demands -- but at least Meshaal spelled out publicly and clearly Hamas's offer of a long-term accommodation with the Jewish state in its pre-1967 war borders.

"What may have appeared as concessions when Carter spoke are in fact statements they (Hamas) have been promoting for some time," analyst Mouin Rabbani said by telephone from Jerusalem.

"For Hamas, the meeting was a significant achievement in itself," he added. "They see Carter as a messenger to both Israel and the United States. They may see this, erroneously in my view, as opening some kind of channel of communication."

President George W. Bush has shunned and vilified Hamas, whose triumph in Palestinian elections in 2006 shocked a U.S. administration that was advocating democracy in the Arab world.

Dismissing Carter's outreach to Hamas as unhelpful, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week reiterated that President Mahmoud Abbas was the only Palestinian interlocutor.

He embodied "the Palestinian leadership that has renounced violence and has negotiated with the Israeli government".

Yet it remains unclear how Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert can advance toward the peace deal Bush had wanted by the end of 2008 while excluding Hamas, a powerful group which seized control of Gaza from Abbas's Fatah faction last year.

Carter's overtures may have represented a modest step towards breaking an international boycott of Hamas, at little cost to itself, but are unlikely to open any doors in the United States under the next president, let alone the incumbent.



PRICE TOO STEEP

"Even in a successor administration, direct dialogue is unlikely," said Nathan Brown, senior associate at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"The U.S. conditions -- acceptance of Israel, renunciation of violence, acceptance of past (Israeli-Palestinian) agreements -- are simply too steep a price for Hamas," Brown declared.

Democratic White House contender Barack Obama on Tuesday described Carter's talks with Hamas as a "bad idea".

Hamas has in the past agreed that Abbas, as head of the PLO, could negotiate with Israel. Meshaal told Carter that any peace agreement reached must be subject to a referendum, preceded by reconciliation between Hamas and the secular Fatah faction.

For now the two sides remain bitterly divided, with Fatah demanding that Hamas cede control of Gaza before any Palestinian power-sharing accord is reached. That makes it hard to see how any deal that Abbas might strike with Israel could stick.

"It would be impossible for such an agreement to be properly ratified or implemented in the context of a continued schism between the two largest (Palestinian) movements," Rabbani said.

Israel, which judged that Carter's talks had produced "no change in Hamas's extremist positions", is itself dealing with the Islamist group, albeit indirectly via Egyptian mediators.

A Palestinian official familiar with those talks said he expected Hamas to reach an agreement with Israel this week on a reciprocal truce "in the Gaza Strip, at this stage". Hamas has previously insisted any ceasefire apply also to the West Bank.

Carter had urged Hamas to agree a unilateral halt to rocket fire into Israel from Gaza, but Meshaal turned him down.

"They (Hamas) said they'd prefer to continue and conclude the discussions with the Egyptians, which is another way of saying 'the Israelis are offering us more than you are, why should we accept your proposal?'," Rabbani said.

Israel and Hamas might each have an interest in such pragmatic deals, without shedding their mutual hostility.

"Some Israelis are interested in pursuing a modus vivendi with Hamas because they think that any comprehensive settlement ...is beyond reach at this point anyway," Carnegie's Brown said.

But the Israeli government does not want outsiders like Carter to help Hamas gain status as a negotiating partner -- even if that might improve prospects for a two-state solution.

"The decision-makers want to retain the severe international isolation of Hamas and worry about any breach in that wall," Brown added. (Editing by Samia Nakhoul)