Audio: Talking to Terrorists, parts I & II
BBC News, July 15, 2007
In Part One of a new two-part series, Alastair Crooke, a veteran of secret negotiations in many parts of the world, sets out his personal view that the policy of dialogue with armed groups, that proved successful in the Northern Ireland peace process, should now be used to help resolve conflict in the Middle East.
In particular, he says, the West should now sit down with Hamas and Hezbollah.
Listen to Part One of Talking to Terrorists
BBC News, July 22, 2007
In Part Two of Talking to Terrorists, the BBC’s Diplomatic Editor, Brian Hanrahan, explores the debate over Alastair Crooke’s thesis with experts on political Islam and those who believe there should be no talking to groups they see as advocating terror.
Listen to Part Two of Talking to Terrorists
[…] July 20th, 2007 Here is Alistair Crooke of the Conflicts Forum on BBC News once again offering informed, nuanced and intelligent analysis of the situation in the Middle East. In Part One of a new two-part series, Alastair Crooke, a veteran of secret negotiations in many parts of the world, sets out his personal view that the policy of dialogue with armed groups, that proved successful in the Northern Ireland peace process, should now be used to help resolve conflict in the Middle East. […]
Incidentally, only yesterday the French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner (a liberal interventionist and hardline Zionist), was beating the same dead horse of a Hamas – al-Qaidah link.