MIDDLE EAST: Sinn Féin was willing to act as "a conduit" in attempts to restore the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Gerry Adams MP has told The Irish Times. The Sinn Féin president was speaking on his return from a visit this week to Israel and the occupied territories.
"We want to be used as a conduit - I mean I wouldn't overstate our importance in the situation, far from it," he said yesterday. He met "all the Palestinian factions", including Hamas legislator Ayman Daraghmeh.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas had to travel abroad at short notice but Mr Adams spoke to him on the telephone and met "his closest advisers". There was "clearly a willingness on the Palestinian side to get the process back on track".
Although his talks with a Hamas representative meant that the Israeli government would not meet him, Mr Adams said the visit was organised in co-operation with the Israeli embassy in Dublin.
"I am a supporter of the Palestinian cause, of course, but we very consciously shaped out the visit to engage with Israeli opinion," he said.
"You see, the normal thing to do, for somebody from my type of background, would have been just to go to the Palestinian territories and ignore the Israelis, but we very consciously decided not to do that.
"We asked the Israeli ambassador to help us to put this trip together; I have to say, despite the policy, that he was very helpful and the Israelis facilitated the visit in a very positive way." He added: "I got into Israel quicker than sometimes I get into the USA."
The late president Yasser Arafat had invited him on a visit several times but he was never able to go. "When he died - the imagery of the man being under siege in that compound and then the circumstances of his death - I felt in some way that I had let him down." As a result, he took a decision that "no matter what else was happening" this visit would not fall through.
He was not aware of any objection to his Hamas meeting by the US administration or any US politicians. "I would be quite perturbed if I thought that people were for peace in Ireland but not in the Middle East."
He felt "sad" as he left the region, having observed the Palestinians' plight. Mr Adams said there was "a useful series of meetings with Israeli NGOs".
"The plight of the Palestinians is dreadful," he said. "I received a briefing a few years ago about this wall that has been built: it doesn't prepare you for the actual size of it . . . stretching for miles and miles and miles."
Mr Adams said he favoured the two-state solution to the conflict.