Israel has cancelled a meeting with a visiting Norwegian dignitary after he held talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, Israeli officials said today.
They said a senior foreign ministry official was to have hosted Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Raymond Johansen in the morning but that the meeting was cancelled under a policy instituted after Hamas won Palestinian elections last year.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert refused to meet Norwegian deputy foreign minster
Mr Johansen visited Mr Haniyeh on Gaza yesterday, becoming the first Western dignitary to engage directly with the Hamas leadership since the Islamist group formed a unity government with the more moderate Fatah faction over the weekend.
His visit came three days after Norway recognised the new government and called on Israel and the international community to work with the new Palestinian coalition and release frozen funds to the Palestinian authorities.
"Foreign dignitaries who meet with the Hamas leadership will not have meetings with Israeli officials. This was a decision taken in 2006," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.
"By recognising an unreformed extremist, you are reinforcing that extremism."
But Mr Johansen said that Norway believed that dialogue with the Palestinian government was the way to promote peace and that Norway remained a good friend of Israel.
Norway brokered the 1993 Oslo accords that cleared the way for setting up a Palestinian authority but which subsequently failed amid renewed violence.