Top international diplomats are not meeting with Hamas leaders during trips to the Middle East.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is meeting with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud ‘Abbas during her trip to Ramallah on Monday but is not meeting Prime Minister Isma’il Haniyya from Hamas, who heads the unity government.
Rice is meeting with regional leaders in Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan to discuss the next steps in reaching a two-state solution between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
The tour is taking place ahead of the Arab summit in Riyadh later this week where the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be addressed.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is also leaving Hamas out of the equation during his Middle East tour.
This is his first visit to the Middle East since taking office in January. Scheduled stops include Egypt, the Palestinian territories, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. He made an unscheduled stop in Iraq over the weekend.
Ban has welcomed the formation of a new Palestinian unity government but is insisting Hamas complies with international conditions regarding Israel.
Meanwhile, Hamas appears to be losing popularity in the Palestinian street, as well. A poll conducted by A-Najah University in Nablus suggests that if legislative elections were to be held today, less than a quarter of the Palestinians would vote for Hamas. The movement won 44 percent of the vote in January 2006.
Also, more than half the respondents said they believed Hamas backtracked on its slogans from last year’s election campaign when it agreed to enter the new unity government.
The poll, conducted during March 21-23, questioned 1,360 eligible voters from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The margin of error was 3%.