Abu Morzouk: Obama peace push will fail without talking to Hamas

Hamas' deputy political leader, Moussa Abu Marzouk, also told The Associated Press that the group would not renounce violence - a key U.S. demand before Washington will agree to deal with the group that it considers a terrorist organization. The U.S. and its European allies also want Hamas to recognize "Israel", another step the group has refused to take.

The Obama administration should change that position, Abu Marzouk said, "because they know that without Hamas their efforts will not succeed."

Hamas, which won the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary election, has striven for international recognition. Most international players in Mideast peace efforts, however, have shunned the group because of its militant stance toward "Israel" and its refusal to accept past agreements signed between its more moderate Palestinian rivals and the Jewish state.

He also bluntly called on Palestinians to abandon violence, saying "resistance through violence and killing is wrong and it does not succeed."

Abu Marzouk dismissed such a prospect, saying, "The real violence in the region is (the "Israeli") occupation. It's also unacceptable that Obama talked about violence and didn't talk about occupation."

He praised Obama's firm stand against "Israeli" settlement construction in the West Bank, which the Palestinians want for a future state along with Gaza and east Jerusalem. "Israel" captured those areas in the 1967 war.

The Hamas leader said the Obama administration must talk to the group.

"Dealing with Hamas is vital because he (Obama) cannot deal with people who don't represent the Palestinian people," Abu Marzouk said, in a reference to Abbas' Fatah movement.