The United States on Friday welcomed Russia's action to persuade the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) to renounce violence and recognize the existence of Israel.
"The Russians, I think, clearly delivered a message consistent with the Quartet aims and the Quartet statement," State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said, referring to Moscow meeting between officials of Russia and Hamas.
"It's up to Hamas to decide how it wants to govern, and the decisions it takes as a governing authority are going to have consequences and are going to influence the decisions that the international community takes," he said.
Hamas won a majority in Palestinian parliamentary elections on January 25, thus having got the right to form the next Palestinian government.
Russia, one of the Quartet, supports the United States, the European Union and the United Nations in demanding that Hamas change its views and actions toward Israel.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday that Hamas will have no future if the Palestinian militant group fails to transform itself into a political structure.
There was a "need for Hamas having been elected to a political body to transform itself into a political party and to be sure that the military wing of Hamas become a legitimate part of the Palestinian security structures." Larvrov told reporters ahead of his talks with a Hamas delegation.