High-ranking European Union diplomats meet weekly with Hamas, despite its status as a terrorist group, Hamas told the EU Observer in an interview on September 12.

“We meet a lot of them from France, from Spain, from Germany, from Italy, from England, from Luxembourg. When they listen to us and we spend a couple of hours with them, they understand what is the real image of Hamas,” said the group’s spokesman, Ghazi Hamad. “None of them are ministers in their governments … some of them are ambassadors. Some are assistants to ambassadors.”

“Some of them are very close to the president of their country, or to the foreign minister,” he said.

The EU Observer notes, “Any high-level European visits would go against the spirit of a 2006 EU decision to halt talks with the militant organization.”

Hamad states that the officials involved want to keep their identities secret. “They want to continue contact but they don’t want to be pestered by the Israeli authorities when they come,” he said.

Germany has been working with Egypt in negotiations with Hamas to secure the release of Israeli captive Gilad Shalit, said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on August 17. Only Egypt, Hamas, Israel and the German secret service are involved in these negotiations. “Everybody sees that these people have an important role,” said Hamad.

This is not the first time German secret agents have been involved in negotiations for prisoner swaps in the Middle East. For example, an internal document from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office revealed that a Hezbollah-Israel prisoner swap last year was set up by a German secret agent through 18 months of negotiations. Such mediation is being used by Europe, and Germany in particular, as a way to play a larger role in the Middle East peace process.

“Hamas sees the European Union as a more neutral party than the U.S. in the Middle East peace process,” wrote the EU Observer. “But it is critical of the EU’s acceptance of a U.S. ‘monopoly’ on the talks.”

Watch for Europe to take a more active role in the Middle East peace process. Israel will soon turn to it to keep the peace. As they work behind the scenes with Hamas, Germany and other EU states are preparing to get more involved in the Middle East. For information on where this will lead, see our article “The Counterfeit Peacemaker.”